Mind in motion

Abstract

By necessity as well as desire, people move and act in space. Our feet carry us from place to place along paths, just as our minds carry us from idea to idea along paths. The same brain structures that underlie places and paths underlie ideas and relations. We talk that way, too; I just did. Our hands place, raise, lower, put together, take apart, turn over push, pull, and throw objects. Our minds and our talk do the same with thoughts. Our minds allow us to take different perspectives on the paths in space, on the relations among ideas, on actions on objects. That turns out to be the key to creativity.