Conceptual blending

Conceptual blending, also called

conceptual integration or view application,
is a theory of cognition developed by Gilles
Fauconnier and Mark Turner. According to
this theory, elements and vital relations
from diverse scenarios are "blended" in a
subconscious process, which is assumed
to be ubiquitous to everyday thought and
language. Conceptual blending is an
emerging field of studies for computer
scientists wishing to pursue researches in
artificial intelligence.{Ben
Goertzel{CitationNeeded|date=June
2017}}

History
The development of this theory began in
1993 and a representative early
formulation is found in the online article
Conceptual Integration and Formal
Expression.[1] Turner and Fauconnier cite
Arthur Koestler's 1964 book The Act of
Creation as an early forerunner of
conceptual blending: Koestler had
identified a common pattern in creative
achievements in the arts, sciences and
humor that he had termed "bisociation of
matrices."[2] A newer version of blending
theory, with somewhat different
terminology, was presented in Turner and
Fauconnier's 2002 book, The Way We
Think.[3] Conceptual blending, in the
Fauconnier and Turner formulation, is one
of the theoretical tools used in George
Lakoff and Rafael Núñez's Where
Mathematics Comes From, in which the
authors assert that "understanding
mathematics requires the mastering of
extensive networks of metaphorical
blends."[4]
Computational models
Conceptual blending is closely related to
frame-based theories, but goes beyond
these primarily in that it is a theory of how
to combine frames (or frame-like objects).
An early computational model of a
process called "view application", which is
closely related to conceptual blending
(which did not exist at the time), was
implemented in the 1980s by Shrager at
Carnegie Mellon University and PARC, and
applied in the domains of causal
reasoning about complex devices[5] and
scientific reasoning.[6] More recent
computational accounts of blending have
been developed in areas such as
mathematics.[7] Some later models are
based upon Structure Mapping, which did
not exist at the time of the earlier
implementations.

The philosophical status of

the theory
In his book The Literary Mind[8] (p. 93),
conceptual blending theorist Mark Turner
states that

Conceptual blending is a
fundamental instrument of the
every day mind, used in our
 basic construal of all our
realities, from the social to the
scientific.

Insights obtained from conceptual blends

constitute the products of creative
thinking, however conceptual blending
theory is not itself a complete theory of
creativity, inasmuch as it does not
illuminate the issue of where the inputs to
a blend originate. In other words,
conceptual blending provides a
terminology for describing creative
products, but has little to say on the matter
of inspiration.
See also
Analogy
Blended space
Conceptual metaphor
Ideasthesia
Intentional stance

Notes
1. Conceptual Integration and Formal
Expression Archived 2006-05-16 at
the Wayback Machine
2. Mark Turner, Gilles Fauconnier: The
Way We Think. Conceptual Blending
and the Mind's Hidden Complexities.
New York: Basic Books 2002, p. 37
3. Fauconnier, Gilles; Turner, Mark (2008),
The Way We Think: Conceptual
Blending and the Mind's Hidden
Complexities, Basic Books.
4. Lakoff, George; Núñez, Rafael (2003),
Where mathematics comes from,
Basic Books, p. 48, ISBN 0-465-03770-
4
5. Shrager, J. (1987) Theory Change via
View Application in Instructionless
Learning. Machine Learning 2 (3),
247–276.
6. Shrager, J. (1990) Commonsense
perception and the psychology of
theory formation. In Shrager & Langley
 (Eds.) Computational models of
scientific discovery and theory
formation. San Mateo, CA: Morgan
Kaufmann.
7. Guhe, Markus, Alison Pease, Alan
Smaill, Maricarmen Martinez, Martin
Schmidtb, Helmar Gust, Kai-Uwe
Kühnberger and Ulf Krumnack (2011).
A computational account of
conceptual blending in basic
mathematics. Cognitive Systems
Research Volume 12, Issues 3–4,
September–December 2011, pp. 249–
265 Special Issue on Complex
Cognition
 8. Turner, Mark (1997), The literary mind,
Oxford University Press.

External links
Blending and Conceptual Integration –
Mark Turner
The Center for the Cognitive Science of
Metaphor Online is a collection of
numerous formative articles in the fields
of conceptual metaphor and conceptual
blending (aka conceptual integration).
The differences between conceptual
metaphor theory and conceptual
blending are illustrated in this article on
visual blends by Tim Rohrer
Aparta Krystian. Conventional Models of
Time and Their Extensions in Science
Fiction A master's thesis exploring
conceptual blending in time travel.
Contains an introduction to the theory of
conceptual blending, as well as an
exploration of the differences between
conceptual metaphor theory and
conceptual blending theory.
TEDxYouth@Krakow – Krystian Aparta
– The power of imagination Talk
showing examples of blending outside
of language.
Retrieved from
"https://en.wikipedia.org/w/index.php?
title=Conceptual_blending&oldid=892634247"

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