millenarianismperspective, it is a calculated error that causes new meaning to emerge.
It can thus tell others something new about reality.
Grounded in new research in cognitive science, the philosophers
Lakoff and Johnson identify primary metaphors that are conventional,
entrenched, and fixed aspects of the human conceptual system. These
primary metaphors, such as “Life is a journey,” form the basis for new
metaphorical combinations that can be used for reasoning. Primary
metaphors link human subjective experiences and judgments to the
human sensory motor experience. The aptness of metaphors is mea-
sured by their ability to play a role in structuring our experience.
Humans acquire metaphorical modes of thought automatically and
unconsciously, which implies that humans have no choice whether to
use them or not. What Lakoff and Johnson claim is that a system of
primary and complex metaphors is part of the cognitive unconscious to
which humans have no direct access or control over the way that it is
used over time. In a practical way, metaphors define abstract concepts
that make abstract scientific theorizing possible. By its ability, a meta-
phor is an embodied form of truth that originates in the unconscious of
embodied human beings.Further reading: Lakoff and Johnson (1999); Ricoeur (1977); Rumi (1968)MILLENARIANISM
Owing its origins to an early Christian context, this concept refers to a
thousand years during which the world will be at peace and its inhabitants
perfectly good and happy. This social and spiritual bliss on earth is
expected to arrive in the near future. Millenarianism is distinguished
from eschatology (doctrine of last things) because it stresses a kind of
paradise on earth, whereas the latter notion transfers its hopes for a better
future to a hereafter. A distinction can also be made within millenarian-
ism between pre-millenarianism and post-millenarianism with the former
expecting Christ to return to earth and establish a millennial rule. The
latter type believes that Christ will return to earth only after the church
establishes the millennium. Another distinction between the two types of
millenarianism relates to the lack of human effort associated with the
coming of a messianic kingdom among the pre-millenarians, while
human effort affects the progression toward such a kingdom after the
church reforms the world. Whereas the post-millenarians see hope with