Analogy as the Core of Cognition

In this Presidential Lecture, cognitive scientist Douglas Hofstadter examines the role and contributions of analogy in cognition, using a variety of analogies to illustrate his points.

Stanford University:
http://www.stanford.edu/

Stanford Humanities Center:
http://shc.stanford.edu/

Stanford University Channel on YouTube:
http://www.youtube.com/stanford

Category:

Education

Tags:

• Humanities
• lecture
• Douglas
• Hofstadter
• cognition
• artificial
• intelligence
• mind
• science
• psychology
• analogy
• computer
• language
• cognitive
• linguistics
• Stanford
• Center

[bennieee]

If anyone else wants to skip the intros, Hofstadter comes on at 13:30

[calinwfraser]

In his publications (i.e., GEB and more recently "I am a Strange Loop") he does give some credit claiming there is a "similarity in spirit" between his and Freud's work.

[Qntkka]

This would be awesome, if the video started with Doug Hafstadter, but, of course, every university interview like this MUST start wth a pompous ass who HAS to hear himself talk. This reminds me of church...and why I ended up an atheist. :)

[Megacaesar]

Heh. 0:44:12.

A particularly interesting explanation on human thought.

[Sanakreon]

I want to hear how he explains the act of planning with his "all of cognition is analogy" theory.

[Jan96106]

Creativity is the ability to see analogies in disparate things, as evidenced by the metaphysical poets who, as described by Johnson, yoke together heterogeneous images by violence in metaphysical conceits. When we nurture our ability to analogize, we develop our intellect and our creativity in whatever area of study we apply it to. Even the way science sees the world, as Kuhn has pointed out, is with ever-shifting analogy.

[healthconcious]

I like how much detail he brings into the presentation

[thepenguin114]

@ZeusDeusEx I just meant that -he- is not wasting -his- time. He's doing what he loves. That's what makes it not a waste to him, in his frame of reference. Maybe not in yours, but that doesn't matter to him.

[ZeusDeusEx]

@thepenguin114 Oh, here comes the "everything could be X" argument again.

- Dont smoke crack cokain, it's poisonous! You can even die!

- There's a lot of stuff being poisonous in our everyday life. Salt for instance, increases your blood pressure. And I could get a satelite, comet och airplane in my head any second that kills me. Who knows when a rhino suddenly appears and smears me to a wall!

[thepenguin114]

@ZeusDeusEx Anything in the world could be a waste of time. It really depends on your frame of reference.

[ZeusDeusEx]

I like the concept of a strange loop. But this talk, show how much he's wasting his time. Though for is own, and some other's amusement.

[bdeaner]

@Nisstyre56

Haha -- that was good...