elephant wrote:
> ROGER:
> > perhaps all we ever do is think and speak in metaphors.
>
> ELEPHANT:
> This is something I seem to change my ideas about from time to time,
largely
> because no-one can tell me definitively just exactly what metaphor *is*.
>
> Ideas?
>
Analogy is 'X is LIKE Y' and there is an implication there is more to it,
unlike simile. Metaphor is X described in terms of Y to a degree where X
'is' Y.
Metaphor is always approximation, even if down to the 17th decimal point!
When we use mathematics to describe things then we are using metaphor. All
maps are metaphors in that once we create the map so we use it to interprete
and predict but that act forces us to see 'out there' through the map --
metaphor, reality is described in the terms of the map.
MOQ is metaphor, mathematics is metaphor, the I Ching is metaphor... and
they all have something in common, they all have the same underlying
structures and relationships that reflect our neruological/cognitive
processes at work. That 'fact' allows us to make analogies across
disciplines very easily.
Metaphor shares the same space with metonymy where metonymy is to the
particular what metaphor is to the general.
The process of induction, where we move from particular to general causes us
to make maps -- aka hypotheses, theories, models etc etc These are based on
our experiences where we particularise from general sensory processes.
As we build the map so we switch from local, reactive behaviours to
proactive behaviours. The proactivity comes when we start to use the map to
predict and this in turn speeds-up development BUT it also forces us to live
through metaphors -- the maps. ... and yes, language too is a map.
BTW Karl Popper did not like induction, for him it required too much of a
leap in faith but modern science has gone to reduce that leap, although it
is still there but maybe just at the Planck distance, 10^-40 metres...
>From neurology/cognitive science research, metaphor processing shares the
same space in the brain as processes dealing with cardinality, topological
processes including object-to-context relationships.
Chris.
------------------
Chris Lofting
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http://www.eisa.net.au/~lofting
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