Conceptual Metaphor Theory<\/p>\n
Metaphor as cognition<\/h3>\n
The Observatory treats metaphor not only as a stylistic figure but as a way of structuring abstract domains. Cognition can be conceptualized through source domains such as seeing, movement, containment, illness, governance, craft, training, or manual action.<\/p>\n<\/article>\n Idealized cognitive models<\/p>\n Individual expressions are interpreted as part of larger conceptual patterns. When related mappings recur across passages, they may point to idealized cognitive models: structured ways of imagining mental activity, knowledge, error, or self-control.<\/p>\n<\/article>\n Cognitive history<\/p>\n The project uses cognitive linguistic tools for historical inquiry. Its aim is not to extract timeless universals from Plutarch, but to ask how metaphorical systems are shaped by the institutions, practices, values, and material culture of the early Roman imperial world.<\/p>\n<\/article>\n Folk epistemology<\/p>\n Metaphors of cognition can reveal assumptions about who can know, how knowledge is gained, how false belief or ignorance is imagined, and how mental abilities are connected to education, moral responsibility, family, and political life.<\/p>\n<\/article>\n<\/div>\n Start with a passage<\/p>\n Aggregate counts are useful for orientation, but the basic evidence remains the passage. Use records as pathways back to Plutarch’s wording, context, genre, and argumentative situation.<\/p>\n<\/article>\n Read scenes cautiously<\/p>\n Scene labels make comparison possible, but they do not replace interpretation. Broad labels should be checked against subframes, lexical units, coder notes, and neighbouring metaphors.<\/p>\n<\/article>\n Use patterns as questions<\/p>\n Frequency, co-occurrence, and network views help identify promising patterns. They should be treated as prompts for philological and historical analysis, not as automatic conclusions.<\/p>\n<\/article>\n<\/div>\n For classicists<\/p>\n Begin with a Plutarchan work or passage, inspect the coded scenes, and ask how metaphor contributes to moral, philosophical, rhetorical, or narrative work.<\/p>\n<\/article>\n For linguists<\/p>\n Compare source and target scenes across the corpus, then test whether recurring mappings support broader models of cognition or reveal genre-specific variation.<\/p>\n<\/article>\n For digital humanists<\/p>\n Use filters, tables, lexical search, and visualizations to locate patterns, while keeping provenance and annotation decisions visible for auditability.<\/p>\n<\/article>\n<\/div>\n Official description<\/p>\n The official project description explains the scientific goal, research questions, corpus scope, significance, work plan, and methodology of Thinking of Thinking<\/em>.<\/p>\n Read the UW project description<\/a><\/p>\n<\/article>\n Core theory<\/p>\n Useful starting points include George Lakoff and Mark Johnson’s work on conceptual metaphor, Zoltán Kövecses on metaphor theory, Elena Semino on metaphor in discourse, and work on idealized cognitive models.<\/p>\n<\/article>\n Historical approach<\/p>\n The project follows a cognitive-historical line of inquiry: cognitive linguistic concepts are used as heuristic tools for reconstructing ancient models of mind and their relation to social and cultural life.<\/p>\n<\/article>\n Plutarch and imagery<\/p>\n Existing scholarship on Plutarch’s imagery, metaphor, ethics, politics, education, and moral psychology provides the interpretive background against which the corpus evidence is evaluated.<\/p>\n<\/article>\n<\/div>\n Corpus access<\/p>\n The public interface is the best current entry point for browsing works, records, scenes, lexical units, and visual summaries.<\/p>\nFrom expressions to systems<\/h3>\n
Thinking in historical context<\/h3>\n
Everyday models of knowing<\/h3>\n
How to read Observatory records<\/h2>\n
Keep the Greek in view<\/h3>\n
Labels are analytical tools<\/h3>\n
Counts are exploratory<\/h3>\n
Key concepts<\/h2>\n
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Reading paths<\/h2>\n
From imagery to argument<\/h3>\n
From mappings to models<\/h3>\n
From data to evidence<\/h3>\n
Project sources and further reading<\/h2>\n
Faculty of History, University of Warsaw<\/h3>\n
Conceptual metaphor and cognition<\/h3>\n
Cognitive history<\/h3>\n
Background studies<\/h3>\n
Reuse and contact<\/h2>\n
Use the Observatory online<\/h3>\n