While reading Metaphors We Live By, I had mixed feelings about the authors' proposal that comparison is the only way that the human mind can make sense of data.  I feel like the author's argument overlooks one crucial detail: if it weren't for the concept of object permanence, humanity would not be able to make such comparisons.  How can one draw connections like this, if we have no concrete perception to begin with?  While metaphor does make language more accessible and understandable, I do not believe that it is as integral to cognition as the authors believe it to be.

The authors first posit the idea of "argument as war" as an example of the dual nature of metaphor; though we speak of argument in terms of battle, they argue, it obviously is not.  Argument does, however, share many characteristics, which the authors freely admit.  At its very base, argument is conflict, and to try to remove it from such is impossible, and in my opinion, foolish.  One does not need to understand war to understand argument - a young child disobeying his parents probably has no concept of his actions in relation to armed conflict.  While argument is in many ways similar to war, and we may refer to it in such terms, we can also recognize them independent of one another; the metaphor does not define the concept.

It is an indisputable fact that metaphor plays in important part in the English language; however, the idea that metaphor itself is what makes cognition possible is a thought that I have difficulty accepting.  Metaphor becomes prevalent because of its way of easing understanding, and simplifying ideas; however, these ideas or objects would exist as tangible entities, regardless of humanity's creation of metaphor.  One learns easier when complex ideas can be simplified and related to one's prior knowledge; however, this still relies on the learner having some knowledge of a tangible subject to begin with.  Without this concrete basis, the idea that metaphor is the sole source of the human mind's ability to glean knowledge falls apart.