Mark Johnson

Mark Johnson is well-known for his contributions to embodied philosophy, cognitive science, and cognitive linguistics, some of which he has co-authored with George Lakoff such as "Metaphors We Live By." His work extends into philosophical topics including John Dewey, Kant, and ethics.

In his 1987 book "The Body in The Mind," Johnson developed a theory of image schema as fundamental constructs in cognitive linguistics for conceptual metaphor, as well as for language and abstract reasoning generally. He argued for a revised version of Kant's notion of the schema as the crucial imaginative link between our concrete perceptions of an object and our experience of categories. Johnson maintained that image schema are regularly recurring embodied patterns of experience that are acquired during early child development. These schemata are image-like in that they are analogic neural activation patterns which preserve the topological contours of perceptual experience as a cohesive whole.

Beyond his academic pursuits, Johnson is a Grammy Award-winning producer and musician and the co-founder of "Playing for Change," a project renowned for its global music initiatives. "Playing for Change's" version of "Stand By Me" gained over 30 million views on YouTube, and their album "Playing For Change: Songs Around The World" debuted at #10 on Billboard’s Pop Chart in April 2009. A sequel, "PFC2 Songs Around The World," debuted at #1 on Billboard's World Music Charts in May 2011. Johnson is also a founding board member of the Playing for Change Foundation, which focuses on building music schools for children worldwide. He has served as a keynote speaker at prestigious forums including the United Nations, TED Global, and the World Economic Forum in Davos, enhancing his profile as a speaker on both educational and musical topics.