Editing George Lakoff (section)

===Reappraisal of metaphor===
Although some of Lakoff's research involves questions traditionally pursued by linguists - such as the conditions under which a certain linguistic construction is grammatically viable - he has become best known for his reappraisal of the role that [[metaphor]]s play in the socio-political activity of humans. The Western scientific tradition has seen metaphor as a purely linguistic construction.{{citation needed|date=February 2025}} The essential thrust of Lakoff's work has been to argue that metaphors are a primarily conceptual construction and are in fact central to the development of [[thought]].

In his words: "Our ordinary conceptual system, in terms of which we both think and act, is fundamentally metaphorical in nature." According to Lakoff, non-metaphorical thought is possible only when we talk about purely physical reality; the greater the level of [[abstraction]], the more layers of metaphor are required to express that abstraction. People do not notice these metaphors for various reasons, including that some metaphors become "dead" in the sense that we no longer recognize their origin. Another reason is that we just do not "see" what is "going on".

In intellectual debate, for instance, the underlying metaphor - according to Lakoff - is usually that argument is war (later revised to "argument is struggle"):
*He ''won'' the argument.
*Your claims are ''indefensible''.
*He ''shot down'' all my arguments.
*His criticisms were ''right on target''.
*If you use that ''strategy'', he'll ''wipe you out''.

According to Lakoff, the development of thought has been the process of developing better metaphors. He also points out that the application of one [[domain of knowledge]] to another offers new perceptions and understandings.