What is argued is that the making of buildings and the experiencing of buildings are both associated with distinctive mental operations and that this association is apparent in our use of language. To put it another way, we use metaphors from architecture to articulate our thoughts because the processes of design and construction and the experience of using building relate to basic mental operations and basic psychological needs. In other words, when we derive from building design the metaphor 'plan', as in 'five-year plan', or from building construction the expression 'foundations', as in 'foundations of economic theory' or from the experience of a building once constructed the concept of 'pillars', as in 'pillars of society', we do so because there is a uniquely close relationship between building and thinking.

Since Greek architecture developed before Greek thought it can be argued that it was their experience of architecture which taught the Greeks how to think. It was by analogy with buildings that the Greeks developed the idea of knowledge and of language as phenomena possessing structural properties.

Thus the discovery of fire gave rise to the first assembly of mankind, to their first deliberations, and to their union in a state of society... In the assembly, therefore, which thus brought them first together, they were led to the consideration of sheltering themselves from the seasons, some by making arbours with the boughs of trees, some by excavating caves in the mountains, and others in imitation of the nests and habitations of swallows, by making dwellings of twigs interwoven and covered with mud or clay. From observation of and improvement on each others' expedients for sheltering themselves, they soon began to provide a better species of huts.