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<blockquote data-quote="Crazy Jerome" data-source="post: 5641259" data-attributes="member: 54877">Anytime you want to convey an abstract concept of worth, it is natural for humans to gravitate towards physical imagery.&nbsp; Not the only way to do it, but a natural enough choice that it will often happen.&nbsp; We'd have things that were &quot;high&quot; or &quot;low&quot; even if we didn't have any metaphysical concepts to discuss.&nbsp; &nbsp;Not infrequently, attempts to avoid such imagery--usually on the grounds that it will be taken too literally--involves a lot of jumping around the problem.&nbsp; See all the things described as &quot;beyond&quot; this or that.&nbsp;Now as far as up being good and down being bad--any number of reasons for that.&nbsp; Somewhere has too be good when you draw a physical map of goodness and badness.&nbsp; But I suppose north/south, east/west have also been used (though perhaps more in fantasy literature trying to avoid up/down than early myth).&nbsp;The &quot;seven directions&quot; attributed to some Native American mythology are also interesting in this context, where the cardinal compass points and up/down are all &quot;outside&quot; and the seventh direction is thus &quot;inside&quot;.</blockquote>

[QUOTE="Crazy Jerome, post: 5641259, member: 54877"] Anytime you want to convey an abstract concept of worth, it is natural for humans to gravitate towards physical imagery. Not the only way to do it, but a natural enough choice that it will often happen. We'd have things that were "high" or "low" even if we didn't have any metaphysical concepts to discuss. Not infrequently, attempts to avoid such imagery--usually on the grounds that it will be taken too literally--involves a lot of jumping around the problem. See all the things described as "beyond" this or that. Now as far as up being good and down being bad--any number of reasons for that. Somewhere has too be good when you draw a physical map of goodness and badness. But I suppose north/south, east/west have also been used (though perhaps more in fantasy literature trying to avoid up/down than early myth). The "seven directions" attributed to some Native American mythology are also interesting in this context, where the cardinal compass points and up/down are all "outside" and the seventh direction is thus "inside". [/QUOTE]

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