Percy Bysshe Shelley

Bio: Percy Bysshe Shelley is an academic researcher. The author has contributed to research in topics: Poetry & Alastor. The author has an hindex of 22, co-authored 163 publications receiving 2278 citations.

A Defence of Poetry

Abstract: ACCORDING to one mode of regarding those two classes of mental action, which are called reason and imagination, the former may be considered as mind contemplating the relations borne by one thought to another, however produced, and the latter, as mind acting upon those thoughts so as to color them with its own light, and composing from them, as from elements, other thoughts, each containing within itself the principle of its own integrity. The one is the [Greek], or the principle of synthesis, and has for its objects those forms which are common to universal nature and existence itself; the other is the [Greek], or principle of analysis, and its action regards the relations of things simply as relations; considering thoughts, not in their integral unity, but as the algebraical representations which conduct to certain general results. Reason is the enumeration of qualities already known; imagination is the perception of the value of those qualities, both separately and as a whole. Reason respects the differences, and imagination the similitudes of things. Reason is to imagination as the instrument to the agent, as the body to the spirit, as the shadow to the substance. 1

The Strategies of Terrorism

Abstract: Terrorism is designed to change minds by destroying bodies; it is a form of costly signaling. Terrorists employ five primary strategies of costly signaling: attrition, intimidation, provocation, spoiling, and outbidding. The main targets of persuasion are the enemy and the population that the terrorists hope to represent or control. Terrorists wish to signal that they have the strength and will to impose costs on those who oppose them, and that the enemy and moderate groups on the terrorists' side cannot be trusted and should not be supported. Each strategy works well under certain conditions and poorly under others. State responses to one strategy may be inappropriate for other strategies. In some cases, however, terrorists are pursuing a combination of strategies, and the response must also work well against this combination.

The concise Oxford dictionary of literary terms

Abstract: This dictionary provides succinct and often witty explanations of over 1000 potentially troublesome terms encountered in the study of literature, from "absurd" to "zeugma". Fully cross-referenced, the entries cover prose, verse, drama, and literary theory from ancient Greece to contemporary schools, and give details of adjectival forms, derivations, and terms from languages and literatures other than English. The book is aimed at general readers; students (from the 6th Form upwards) and teachers of English literature; and those studying classical and modern European literature.

A taxonomy of the emotions of literary response and a theory of identification in fictional narrative

Abstract: A taxonomy of emotions of literary response is presented. Some emotions occur as readers confront a text: they depend on curiosity as new material is assimilated to schemata, or on dishabituation as schemata accommodate. Further modes of emotion arise if readers enter the world of a story: they arise as a writer represents eliciting patterns of emotion and the reader responds with sympathy as story characters face these patterns, from personal memories of emotion, and by identification with characters' goals and plans. Based on cognitive theory and literary criticism, a theory of identification in fictional literature is presented, derived from Aristotle's concept mimesis. The usual translations, ‘imitation’ or ‘representation’, are misleading: mimesis means something closer to ‘simulation’, as in computers. Fictional simulations run on people's minds. For them to run successfully readers (a) adopt a character's goals and use their own planning procedures to connect actions together meaningfully, (b) form mental models of imagined worlds, (c) receive speech acts addressed to them by the writer, and (d) integrate disparate elements to create a unified experience. In providing materials for these functions, great writers allow readers to respond creatively, to feel moved emotionally, to understand within themselves some of the relations between actions and emotions, and sometimes to undergo cognitive change.

The educated mind : how cognitive tools shape our understanding

Abstract: The ills of education are caused, this text argues, by the fact that we have inherited three major educational ideas, each of which is incompatible with the other two These mutual incompatibilities, it continues, bring about clashes at every level of the educational process, from curriculum decisions to teaching methods The text presents an alternative It concludes with practical proposals for how teaching and curriculum should be changed to reflect this new conception and fit in with how we actually learn

Metaphor is grounded in embodied experience

Abstract: What role do people’s embodied experiences have in their use and understanding of metaphor? Contrary to the traditional belief that metaphor transcends human experience and best reflects metaphysical truths, there is substantial evidence from cognitive science that demonstrates how metaphor is fundamentally grounded in embodiment. We review this empirical evidence and discuss the methodological strategies employed by linguists and psychologists seeking connections between embodiment and metaphor. A case study of how people think and speak of desire in terms of hunger, specifically shows how systematic patterns of bodily experience serve as the source domains for many cross-linguistic metaphorical mappings. These data provide strong evidence in favor of the idea that metaphorical thought and language arises from, and is grounded in, embodiment.