The origin of ideas : blending, creativity, and the human spark

312 Pages·2014·2.91 MB·English

by  Turner

BLENDING, CREATIVITY, & THE HUMAN SPARK
OF IDEAS
MARK li URNER

The Origin of Ideas

The Origin
Of Ideas
Blending, Creativity,
and the Human Spark
z

MARK TURNER
1
3
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Library of Congress Cataloging-in-Publication Data
Turner, Mark, 1954-
Th e origin of ideas: blending, creativity, and the human spark / Mark Turner.
pages cm
Includes bibliographical references and index.
ISBN 978–0–19–998882–2
1. Creative ability. 2. Idea (Philosophy) I. Title.
BF408.T845 2014
153.2—dc23
2013015132
1 3 5 7 9 8 6 4 2

Printed in the United States of America
on acid-free paper
Contents

Acknowledgments vii
1. Th e Human Spark 1
2. Catch a Fire 11
3. Th e Idea of You 31
4. Th e Idea of I 65
5. Forbidden Ideas 107
6. Artful Ideas 145
7. Vast Ideas 175
8. Tight Ideas 191
9. Recurring Ideas 221
10. Future Ideas 253
Appendix: Th e Academic Workbench 261
Notes 271
References 279
Index 287

Acknowledgments

I am grateful to the Norwegian Ministry of Education and Research and to
its Centre for Advanced Study at the Norwegian Academy of Science and
Letters for a fellowship year in 2011–2012. Th is book was written during my
residency in that superb company.
I thank Joan Bossert, my editor at Oxford University Press; the many
members of her staff who assisted in the publication of this book; Arthur
Evenchik; and several very helpful anonymous reviewers.
Th is book draws on a number of articles, chapters, and online presen-
tations I have published previously, including the following: “Th e Art of
Compression” 2006, in Th e Artful Mind: Cognitive Science and the Riddle of
Human Creativity, edited by Mark Turner (Oxford University Press); “Th e
Scope of Human Th ought” August 17, 2009, On the Human (target article
in an online forum run by the National Humanities Center); “Th e Origin
of Selkies” 2004, Journal of Consciousness Studies, volume 11, numbers 5-6;
“Th e Mind is an Autocatalytic Vortex” 2008, in Th e Literary Mind, Volume
24 (2008) of R EAL: Yearbook of Research in English and American Literature ,
edited by Jürgen Schlaeger (Tübingen, Germany: Gunter Narr Verlag); “Th e
Ghost of Anyone’s Father” 2004, in Shakespearean International Yearbook ,
volume 4, edited by Graham Bradshaw, Th omas Bishop, and Mark Turner
(Hants, UK: Ashgate Publishing Limited); and “Double-scope stories” 2003,
in N arrative Th eory and the Cognitive Sciences , edited by David Herman
(Stanford: Center for the Study of Language and Information).