Surfaces and Essences: Analogy as the Fuel and Fire of Thinking (144 page)

pointless analogies,
see
analogies
, purposeless

Poirot-Delpech, Bertrand,
373

political analogies,
17
,
331–337

Polya, George,
507

polynomials: over finite fields,
447–448
; imaginary numbers in,
448
; search for general solution formula for,
445

pool table/ideal gas
explanatory analogy,
457

Pope: of atheism,
219
; pluralization of,
219
; as salient entity used in caricature analogies,
320
; of search engines,
220

positron (= anti-electron),
482

potential analogies,
see
semantic halos

potential energy,
479–481

pressures: to categorize in real time,
258
,
261
; in creative translation,
371
,
380–382
; in Einstein’s mind,
477
,
480–481
,
485
; guiding caricature analogies,
323
; inducing fluid conceptual slippages in Copycat domain,
350–351
,
352
,
354–357
; to make equations reflect cause and effect,
407–411
; pushing for creative analogies,
300–301
,
355–356
,
458
,
477
,
480–481
;
see also
cognitive dissonance

prime numbers: generalized to “prime groups”,
449
; generalized to “prime knots”,
449
; generalized to primes inside rings,
448

primitive needs as primeval forces,
314

“prison”, metaphorical use of,
228–229

prison of the known, Krishnamurti’s putative
313–315

privileged category of each entity,
190
,
435

probabilities, as hinted by strengths of analogies,
308

problem-solving: led astray by miscategorization,
293–295
; mistaken for the
raison d’être
of analogy-making,
283
,
285

Procrustes, bed of,
144–145
,
160

productive suffixes “-holic”, “-thon”, and “-ism”,
129

professions, hierarchical structuring of,
242–243

proper nouns, pluralization of,
217–223

proportional analogies,
15–16
; as gleaming jewels,
16
; unhelpful in devising caricature analogies,
323–324
; as unnatural view of
most analogies,
144–145

proportionality/analogy
proportional analogy,
15

proportionality to mass: of fictitious forces,
488
; of gravitational forces,
489–491

prototype theory
versus
exemplar theory of concepts,
57

proverbs: families of,
109
; as filters through which to understand situations,
101
,
102
; as names of categories,
100–102
; non-opacity of,
106
; objective reality of instances of,
110
,
111
,
132–133
; overly general interpretations of,
107
; recognized in situations,
174
,
188
; retrieval of,
104–105
,
110
; scope of,
106–109
; surface
versus
essence of,
106–109
; use of, as an act of analogy-making,
100
; use of, as an act of categorization,
100

pseudo-proverbs,
105
,
106

psychic trauma as a notion foreseen in the proverb “Once bitten, twice shy”,
104

psychological pressures leading one to map oneself analogically onto others,
153
,
154–155

“psychology does not recapitulate etymology”,
86

public categories,
100

“pull no stops unturned”, as quintessential lexical blend,
262–264

pumpkins, pastries, plows, and pigs,
66

puns under attack, caricature analogy of,
319

“pure”
versus
“uncontaminated” analogies,
363–364
,
366–367

Pushkin, Alexander Sergeevich,
130
,
132
; constraints in poetry of,
315
; of feminism, the,
222

putting finger on a situation’s essence,
see
essence-spotting

Pythagoras
, as a category,
221

—Q—

quadratic equation: broken up into six cases,
441
; formula(s) for,
438
,
441

quadrilaterals, classification of,
233–238
,
255

quality control, as explanatory analogy,
329

quantum of energy: of electromagnetic wave,
459
; of heat,
461
; of sound,
461
; of vibrating atom,
456–457
,
461

quartic equation: group of symmetries of its solutions,
446
; strange formula for,
445

“quatre-vingts” as translation of “four score”,
370–371

quintic equation: search for formula for solutions of,
445–446
; unsolvability via radicals proven for,
446

quotation marks: as a convention of this book for words,
34
,
110
; for honorary category members,
44
,
64–65
; second-order,
65

“quote unquote”, as way of indicating metaphorical usage,
64–65

quotient groups,
448–449

quotient skyscrapers,
448

—R—

Raban, Jonathan,
284

random murder
as conceptual skeleton,
248

random resemblances constantly noticed,
284

randomly buzzing interplanetary bumblebee,
see
magical angel

rapid right-on retrieval: as the core of cognition,
127
; as the essence of intelligence,
125–126
; as needed for survival,
79
,
83
,
505–506
;
see also
essence-spotting

rationalization and
sour grapes
,
115–118

read ⇒ write
conceptual slippage,
276–277

reading, as triggering ideas in a mind,
376–377

ready-made sentences as categories,
98–99

Reagan, Nancy,
358

reality of members of abstract categories,
110
,
111
,
132–133

reasoning, as opposed to analogy-making,
333
;
see also
logic
,
analogic
versus
logic

recategorization of situations,
73
,
249–252
,
327–328

reclothing a stripped-down essence,
153

Recorde, Robert,
408

reduction ad absurdum
technique in mathematics,
450

redwood trees, trip to,
310–312

refinement of categories, as reaching a limit,
83

relationships among parts: as crucial for analogy-making,
517–518
; as crucial for categorization,
518–519

relativity, Galilean, principle of,
466–468
,
485
,
486
,
492

relativity, general: analogies at root of,
491–495
,
499
; attempts at,
490–491
; experimental confirmation of,
496
; goals of,
486–488
; rotating disk in,
497–498

relativity, special,
361
; analogy at root of,
467–468

remindings: as crucial for survival,
172–173
; as a deep mystery of cognition,
159–166
,
354
; as due to analogousness,
18
,
30
,
336
; idiosyncratic nature of,
525–526
; induced by traumatic experience,
225
; mediated by faces,
181–184
; mediated by identical encodings,
173
; mediated by many diverse cues,
171
; opacity of mechanisms of,
511
; revealing the existence of unsuspected categories,
168
; seeming not to need explanation,
18
; triggered by simple visual analogies,
169–170

repeated addition: as crux of multiplication,
412–416
; as way of solving multiplication problems,
427–429

reporter #1/reporter #2
romantic analogy,
305–306
,
308

retrieval of memories,
see
remindings
,
triggering

reversal: by Einstein,
474
,
482–483
; as potential source of humor,
280
; role of, in creativity,
356–357
,
363–364
,
371

rhyme, preservation of, in poetry translation,
381

rich and poor zones of a language in conceptual space,
82–83

Richard, Jean-François,
294–295

Riemann, Bernhard,
498

“right”
versus
“wrong”: in analogy-making,
16
; in Copycat domain,
350–351
,
352
;
see also
esthetics

Ringfinger, Renate,
464

rings, as homes of new types of numbers,
448

ripples,
see
waves

Rips, Lance,
390

rival analogies: in real-time competition,
260–278
; in wartime decision-making,
333

rock-climbing as metaphor for creative thinking,
131

rock music
, category in the mind of a classical-music lover,
241

role reversal in Grand Canyon episode,
163
,
165

Roosevelt, Franklin Delano,
90
,
275

roots of polynomials,
see
solutions of polynomials

rope, speaking of, in the house of the hanged,
104
,
311

Rosch, Eleanor,
55
,
345
,
436

Rossi, Mario,
259

rotating disk/non-Euclidean geometry
analogy,
498

rotations of a cube, as number-like entities,
446–447
;
see also
groups

royalty statement triggering analogies,
153–154

Ruffini, Paolo,
446

rule of thumb separating analogy-making and categorization,
515

Rumelhart, David,
259

Russian language,
9–10
,
12
,
368
; Anna’s dream in,
504
; “but” in,
74

Ruth, Babe: of bank robbers, the,
222
; 1927 Yankees minus,
468

Ruth, Dan’s image of, contaminated by Jeanine,
225

Rutherford, Ernest,
143

—S—

sabbatical year, zooming in on details of,
50

Sagan, Françoise, obituary of, as translation challenge,
373–377

salience: of any feature as subjective,
363–364
; of deep features to experts,
342–344

salient features dominate in memory retrieval,
342

salsa: debugging of technique in,
403–404
; the pope of,
219

salt/sugar
confusion as categorization error,
102
,
527

Sander, Emmanuel: as error collector,
259
; explaining humps and bottles to his son,
198–200
; falling momentarily for
categories = boxes
,
436
; making analogy between co-author’s two blue station wagons,
283
; as one-time Pac-Maniac,
303–305
; smiling with joy at finally finishing book :),
575
; taking coffee break,
185
,
317
; transculturated to San Francisco,
327–328

Sander, Mica,
40
,
198–200
,
295

Sander, Talia,
17
,
39
,
40
,
43

Sander, Tom,
40
,
126
,
233–234
,
236

Sandwich, Earl of, the fourth,
214

sandwiches: “A–B–A” form of,
215–216
; abstraction of,
214–216
; of appointments,
216
; blurry boundaries of category,
214–216
;
bread
role in,
214–216
; edible,
214
,
216
; horizontality of,
215
;
meat
role in,
214–216
; in Paris métro,
215
; in physics,
215–216
; of rhymes;
215
; sexual,
215
; symmetry, as unclear criterion in,
215–216
; transistors as,
215
; walking,
214–215