• about
    • Awards
  • designer
    • Samples
  • lecturer
  • writer
    • a few novel pages
    • Alternative Beauty
    • Dublin Dating Disasters
    • staycation versus fernweh
    • Curls just want to have fun…
    • Already kissed today?
    • Film Reviews
      • Transformers: Age of Extinction.
      • A Walk Among the Tombstones
      • Before I go to Sleep
      • Begin Again
      • Dawn of the Planet of the Apes
      • Earth to Echo
      • Film Reviews 2012
        • Argo
        • Bel Ami, not so seductive…
        • Brave
        • Damsels in Distress
        • Detachment
        • Dr Seuss’ The Lorax
        • Extremely Loud and Incredibly Close
        • Frankenweenie
        • Friends with Children
        • Grabbers
        • Jeff who lives at home
        • Joyful Noise
        • Magic Mike
        • Seeking a Friend for the End of the World
        • Skyfall
        • The Amazing Spider-Man
        • The Avengers Assembled
        • The Devil Inside
        • The Lucky One
        • The Raid
        • Think like a Man (Act like a Lady)
      • Film Reviews 2013
        • 2 Guns
        • After Earth
        • Austenland
        • Before Midnight
        • Behind the Candelabra
        • Blue Jasmine
        • Elysium
        • Insidious: Chapter 2
        • Lovelace
        • Mama
        • Man of Steel
        • Monsters University
        • Now You See Me
        • Pain & Gain
        • Playing for Keeps
        • R.I.P.D
        • Rush
        • The Act of Killing
        • The Call
        • The Fifth Estate
        • The Irish Pub
        • The Kings of Summer
        • We’re the Millers
        • What Maisie Knew
        • White House Down
        • World War Z
        • This is 40
        • A Dark Truth
        • Django Unchained
        • Flight
        • Lincoln
        • The Impossible
        • The Paperboy
        • The Sessions
      • Get-On-Up
      • Gone Girl
      • Guardians of the Galaxy: dance and quip their way out of any danger hurdling towards them
      • Serena
      • Sex Tape
      • Sex Tape – a slapstick comedy
      • The Book of Life
      • The Calling
      • The Equalizer
      • The Expendables 3
      • The Maze Runner
      • Think Like a Man Too
      • This is where I leave you – better left unwatched
      • Film Preview 2013

jensinewall

~ writer, designer, creative thinker

jensinewall

Daily Archives: August 27, 2014

talking with our hands – how we make our thoughts real

27 Wednesday Aug 2014

Posted by jensine in thoughts

≈ 4 Comments

Tags

hands, philosophy, Professor Susan Goldin-Meadow, psychology, Psychology Department, quotes, Rene Descartes, Susan Goldin-Meadow, talking with your hands, thoughts, University of Chicago

Pointing, twiddling, waving, measuring, flapping, swiping, many of us seem to talk with our hands, gesticulating while we chat, emphasizing what we are saying with every movement of our digits. But yesterday I read a sentence that gave a whole new meaning to what we do with our hands.

“We change our minds by moving our hands”  was the statement I read made by Professor Susan Goldin-Meadow, of the Psychology Department of the University of Chicago, in an issue of the journal Cognitive Science. This short little sentence sums up what people mean by ’embodied cognition’, the idea that what we do with our bodies influence how and what we think.

This idea contradicts everything that Rene Descartes claimed in the 17th century when he said (I paraphrase here): the body is an entirely separate thing to the mind and soul. And, as we all know, the idea of a disembodied mind took off, dominating how the world viewed our inner workings.
But looking back – way back-  to the good old philosophers like Socrates and Plato, they believed (like our modern day followers of ’embodied cognition’) that what is in the mind must be brought into the real world – thought must become reality.

So, when we have an idea, repeat something we have learned or even try to grasp a fleeting thought, by moving our hands, we are creating a non-verbal language, transcribing what are mind is thinking into movement, sometimes expressing something we don’t yet have the words for.

Basically what artists and inventors have been doing since the beginning of time, catching a  thought by molding, painting, drawing, writing, sculpting, composing and creating something that is only in their mind – making their thoughts reality by moving their hands.

He who works with his hands  and his head and his heart is an artist

Saint Francis of Assisi

Enter your email address to follow this blog and receive notifications of new posts by email.

Join 1,681 other followers

Shortlisted for Blog Awards Ireland 2012

Me and my thoughts

August 2014
M T W T F S S
 123
45678910
11121314151617
18192021222324
25262728293031
« Jul   Sep »

Quote

And by the way, everything in life is writable about if you have the outgoing guts to do it, and the imagination to improvise. The worst enemy to creativity is self-doubt. ~Sylvia Plath

Past but not forgotten

  • back in Belfast
  • waiting in Dublin
  • a gentle gesture
  • Easter auntie duties
  • sunny Sunday afternoon
  • lost hour
  • Weekly Photo Challenge: It’s easy being green

Reeling through the months

  • May 2017 (1)
  • March 2017 (17)
  • February 2017 (1)
  • January 2017 (1)
  • December 2016 (1)
  • November 2016 (13)
  • October 2016 (30)
  • September 2016 (10)
  • July 2016 (7)
  • June 2016 (18)
  • May 2016 (21)
  • April 2016 (12)
  • March 2016 (25)
  • February 2016 (10)
  • January 2016 (16)
  • December 2015 (13)
  • November 2015 (14)
  • October 2015 (15)
  • September 2015 (19)
  • August 2015 (19)
  • July 2015 (13)
  • June 2015 (17)
  • May 2015 (22)
  • April 2015 (22)
  • March 2015 (20)
  • February 2015 (16)
  • January 2015 (14)
  • November 2014 (12)
  • October 2014 (27)
  • September 2014 (35)
  • August 2014 (25)
  • July 2014 (28)
  • October 2013 (14)
  • September 2013 (22)
  • August 2013 (21)
  • July 2013 (25)
  • June 2013 (23)
  • April 2013 (16)
  • March 2013 (10)
  • February 2013 (22)
  • January 2013 (36)
  • December 2012 (3)
  • November 2012 (13)
  • October 2012 (27)
  • August 2012 (11)
  • July 2012 (33)
  • June 2012 (30)
  • May 2012 (28)
  • April 2012 (35)
  • March 2012 (14)
  • September 2011 (1)

Come and read

All my thoughts

The contents of this blog is copyright © to me Jensine-Bethna Wall and although I am happy for you to post, re-post or reference my thoughts, ramblings and miscellaneous outpourings, to do so you must always make it clear that the content belongs to me and me alone and I have the right to be identified as the author, this is only for non-commercial purposes If the content of this blog is to be published or broadcasted by any for of media for commercial purposes I do maintain the right to be contacted and asked for permission, in some cases even payment. Any unauthorised broadcasting, public performance, copying or re-recording will constitute an infringement of copyright. I grant permission to reproduce for personal and educational use only. Commercial copying, hiring, lending is prohibited, otherwise all rights reserved.

Create a free website or blog at WordPress.com.

Privacy & Cookies: This site uses cookies. By continuing to use this website, you agree to their use.
To find out more, including how to control cookies, see here: Cookie Policy
  • Follow Following
    • jensinewall
    • Join 1,681 other followers
    • Already have a WordPress.com account? Log in now.
    • jensinewall
    • Customize
    • Follow Following
    • Sign up
    • Log in
    • Report this content
    • View site in Reader
    • Manage subscriptions
    • Collapse this bar