Page 80 - Contribution To Phenomenology

PHENOMENOLOGY AND COGNITIVE SCIENCE 73

Although Johnson describes three different "out" schemata, all of the
sentences cited here are based on one such schema. In this schema an
entity is first contained within something and then moves outside of that
thing (p. 33). The meaningfulness of these propositions depends upon
the meaningfulness of a single prelinguistic schema. The schema itself is
first constituted through bodily activity: we move our bodies out of a
container (say, a room or a bed) to some space outside of this container.
It is, then, what Merleau-Ponty would call "the body-subject'* that turns
out to be the structuring source of meaningfulness and a meaningful
world (Merleau-Ponty, 1%2).
If it is true that all of these propositions depend for their meaning-
fuhiess on an "out" schema that is constituted through bodily movement
"out" of some spatial location, then the first proposition, "John went out
of the room," is closest to this root meaning. And as the list of proposi-
tions proceeds, the verb forms become more "metaphorical" while still
remaining based on this root meaning. "Weasling out of the contract"
signifies "movement" from one "place" (viz., within the contract) to
another "place" (viz., outside of the contract); but the "places" are no
longer spatial locations strictly speaking, and the "movement" is not
bodily movement through space. This metaphorical projection of the "out"
schema illustrates one of Johnson's main theses: "schematic structures
saUent in most of our mundane experience . . . can be extended and
elaborated metaphorically to connect up different aspects of meaning,
reasoning, and speech acts" (p. 65).
In order to demonstrate these processes of metaphorical projection,
Johnson first explicates the image schema of "balance." This schema, like
all others, is first constituted in bodily experiences and activities. As
Johnson phrases it, ". . . the meaning of balance begins to emerge
through our acts of balancing and our experience of systemic processes
and states within our bodies" (p. 75). The schema that emerges in this
way includes, among its gestalt-constituents, weight and force.
Johnson then shows how other reaUties such as paintings and masks
can be perceived as "balanced." Such perception involves a metaphorical
projection of the gestalt-constituents of the embodied image schema onto
another domain. Seeing the mask as balanced involves "the projection
of structure fi*om one domain (that of gravitational and other physical
forces) onto another domain of a different kind (spatial organization in
visual perception)" (p. 82). In seeing the mask it is not simply the case
that the lines and shapes on each side of it are perceived as symmetrical.