Concepts, Metaphors, Analogies

Concepts are predictions, Lisa Barrett says, in her book How Emotions Are Made. As we go through life, we learn to categorize things. Why? Putting an object, action, or event in a category lets us infer many things, including how it will act.

We learn by association and much of it is unconscious, George Lakoff writes, in Metaphors We Live By and Philosophy In The Flesh. Those things we associate unconsciouly, like happy and up, more and up, success and up, warmth and affection, white and puri...