Mark Turner should be named poet laureate of cognitive science. In The Origin of Ideas, Turner presents a cognitive science of creative thought using persuasive examples from areas such as cognitive linguistics and neuroscience. He argues how creative thinking, in the form of advanced conceptual blending, underlies human endeavors ranging from ancient sculpture to modern economics. In this manner, Turner ... Read moreprofoundly describes a key step in the grand scope of human cognitive development-an achievement he carries out with sparkling clarity and inimitable panache.
D. Fox Harrell, Associate Professor of Digital Media, Comparative Media Studies Program & Computer Science and Artificial Intelligence Laboratory, MIT.
Mark Turner, in his new book The Origin of Ideas: Blending, Creativity, and the Human Spark, describes, in a wealth of fascinating detail, his view that humans are innovative and good at creative thinking due to the ability of our brains to blend two or more ideas and create a new idea. Only when evolution gave us brains with this new ability could we make vast cultural advances. . . . While The Origin of Ideas is not a simple book, and the concept of blending is much more sophisticated than it may seem initially, Turner leads the reader step by step, using familiar concepts to enhance understanding of those more complex. If you're intrigued by how creativity happens, this smoothly written volume should be in your collection.
Psychology Today
Turner probes the nature of creativity. He does apply 'blending' to such complex topics as 'self,' identity,' and 'theory of mind' in a reader-friendly style that encompasses neurobiology, cartoons, Picasso, and Winnie-the-Pooh. Recommended. All readers.
S. Krippner, CHOICE Magazine
Turner makes a cogent and often colorfully argued case for blending's importance as crucial to the development of new ideas and imaginative works.
Publishers Weekly
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