IN The Political Mind, George Lakoff, an eminent cognitive linguist at the University of California, Berkeley, sets out to provide a mind science primer for progressive US politicians. His hope is that, come November, they might defeat the conservatives who, if Lakoff is to be believed, already stealthfully deploy the latest wisdom from cognitive science.
According to Lakoff, the 18th-century Enlightenment painted a portrait of humans as thinkers: rational, logical and attentive to facts. Progressive politicians buy into this, and thus offer facts and logical arguments to sell their policies to the public.
But humans are not rational, at least…
