Q. In a text on philosophy of language, I encountered these two sentences: “From these lofty heights, I’ll now bring the discussion down to earth a bit. To be precise, I’ll place it firmly in the head.” I want to know whether the last sentence has idiomatic meaning or whether I should interpret it literally and translate it word for word. Thanks.
A. It’s good practice to query oddities like this; unless you get inside this writer’s head, you could end up with a goofy translation.