Quantum Cognition – Quantum Analogy

Attempts to apply the apparatus of quantum mechanics to cognition and language have met, understandably, with a degree of scepticism within the disciplines concerned, but they nevertheless have the potential for opening exciting new perspectives. In this article, I address the question as to what it is exactly about these attempts that has drawn such attention – both positive and negative – in recent years. I shall argue for distinguishing those aspects of quantum cognition that do warrant serious consideration by cognitive psychologists and linguists irrespective of the exact nature of its relationship to classical quantum mechanics. The key lies in the important role played by analogy in both disciplines.

Greece

This chapter considers the periodization of the “Second Sophistic.” Borrowing and adapting an analogy from quantum physics, it argues that we can understand the Second Sophistic both in “particulate” terms—as something with clearly defined boundaries in time and space—and as a “wave function” that ripples across space and time. In particular, the literary production of the Hellenistic near east shows striking similarities in certain respects: a concern with fictionality, self-consciousness of self-presentation, a problematization of personal identity. As in the quantum analogy, it is the configuration of the “laboratory equipment” that we use for our experiments that determines the outcome of the experiment itself.