George Lakoff

Who is George Lakoff?

George P. Lakoff is an American cognitive linguist, best known for his thesis that lives of individuals are significantly influenced by the central metaphors they use to explain complex phenomena.

The metaphor thesis, introduced in his 1980 book Metaphors We Live By has found applications in a number of academic disciplines and its application to politics, literature, philosophy and mathematics has led him into territory normally considered basic to political science. In 1996 book Moral Politics, Lakoff described right-wing voters as being influenced by "strict father model" as central metaphor for such an complex phenomenon as the state and left-wing voters as being influenced by "nurturant parent model" as folk psychological metaphor for this complex phenomenon. According to him, an individual's experience and attitude towards paying taxes is influenced by being framed in linguistic constructions such as "tax relief" as some sort of affliction that individuals need a "relief" from.