From: Matt the Enraged Endorphin (mpkundert@students.wisc.edu)
Date: Mon Mar 17 2003 - 03:01:22 GMT
Joe,
Joe said:
I do not know what you
mean: "after we literalize a metaphor"? The literalized metaphor is still
conventional sound, so what does the word "literalized" mean in that
context?"
Matt:
When a metaphor becomes literalized it has cognitive meaning. That is, it
means what it means, it becomes a piece on the chessboard. For instance,
when I say, "I am a tree," it doesn't mean anything literally because
"tree" refers to something entirely other than myself. However, if we
changed the meaning of "tree" to "a kind, gentle fellow," the belief would
suddenly make literal, cognitive sense (whether or not it was true). This
is certainly an artificial example, but its basically what happens. The
meanings of our words change as we say things that don't make sense. A
literalized metaphor is a dead metaphor: in other words, not a metaphor.
Joe said:
Matt, why are you trying to defend Pirsig's "Quality" project? Defend
against whom?
Matt:
Maybe that was a poor way to say things. How about this: You want to play
around with Pirsig's writings in one way and I want to play around with
Pirsig's writings in another way. For instance, you want to play around
with Pirsig by saying things like, "Words represent the essence abstracted
by the mind." I red flag the words "represent," "essence," and "mind" as
all being things I wouldn't want to say. When I play around with Pirsig I
say things like, "Quality is the ultimate metaphor. We cannot have
knowledge of it because it is not an intellectual chesspiece."
Matt
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