Love me
Posted on March 21, 2002 @ 12:23 in Research
Remembering Jill's discussion of the role of gender in the Turing test, I just ran across the following piece of text:
The Gestalt psychologists recognized that the meaning of value of a thing seems to be perceived just as immediately as its color. The value is clear on the face of it, as we say, and thus it has a physiognomic quality in the way that the emotions of a man appear on his face. To quote from the Principles of Gestalt Psychology (Koffka, 1935): "Each thing says what it is... a fruit says 'Eat me'; water says 'Drink me'; thunder says 'Fear me'; and woman says 'Love me' [p. 7]." These values are a vivid and essential feature of the experience itself. (Gibson, 1977: 77)
Although it's Gibson here quoting Koffka, he's still quoting this particular piece of Koffka's text. Also note the absence of an article specifying the woman who says 'Love me', because it's the universal woman, dare I say always, saying 'Love me.' Yet, the emotions of a man appear on his face, for although a man is also any man, he is always a particular man (the reader? the writer?).
(Gibson, J.J. (1977) The Theory of Affordances. In: Shaw, Robert & John Bransford (eds.) (1977) Perceiving, Acting, and Knowing. Toward Ecological Psychology. Hillsdale, New Jersey: Lawrence Erlbaum Associates.
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