metaphor+(Brucato)

=Metaphor=

Metaphor is a transfer of meaning between experiences. It serves to aid both cognitive and articulation strategies.

I. Definition
Dictionary definitions fail to capture the role of metaphor in cognition. This definition from Merriam-Webster begins to point toward its use in articulation.

(Merriam-Webster Dictionary)
 * 1) a figure of speech in which a word or phrase literally denoting one kind of object or idea is used in place of another to suggest a likeness or analogy between them (as in drowning in money); broadly : figurative language
 * 2) an object, activity, or idea treated as a metaphor : symbol

Metaphors are used in sense-making and articulation strategies particularly when confronting abstract concepts. Reification is mediated by metaphor.

Etymology:

 * 1530s, from M.Fr. metaphore, from L. metaphora, from Gk. metaphora "a transfer," especially of the sense of one word to a different word, lit. "a carrying over," from metapherein "transfer, carry over," from meta- "over, across" (see meta-) + pherein "to carry, bear" (Online Etymology Dictionary).

A subject may cognitively //transfer// one's meaning of a concept to a material object in order for it to //bear// its meaning. This may be for the purposes of scaffolding between phenomenon and noumenon, or it may be for the intention of attempting to articulate conceptual meaning that may be shared between or among subjects.

II. Explication
Lakoff and Johnson deeply impacted the way in which social psychologists have come to understand the role of metaphor in cognition and communication. Many in the discipline now carry the understanding that "human cognition deploys space to represent abstract concepts that are not easily accessible to the senses," Maass and Suitner explain. "Spatial knowledge aids abstract thinking in an asymmetrical way and this asymmetry not only holds for the order in which concepts are learned, but also for the way in which fully developed adult cognition functions" (2011: 159).

Metaphor provides opportunities for articulating abstract concepts that "cannot be understood unless they are mapped onto experiences that are directly accessible to our senses," argue Maass and Suitner. "Thus, our direct experience with physical location and orientation in space (the source domain) provides the basis for an analogy through which abstract concepts (the target domain) can be understood" (2011: 159)

III. Examples in STS
In physics, momentum is the product of the mass and velocity of an object. It refers to a power residing in an object that has both mass and is in a state of motion (including at rest). Momentum itself bears some metaphorical significance. From the Latin, mōtus, commonly used to express motion, it also was used in its original language to refer to a change or alteration; revolution or sedition; an "impulse, emotion, affection, passion, agitation, disturbance" of the mind or heart; or even a "stage in the growth of a plant" (Lewis).

Thomas P. Hughes introduced the concept of technological momentum. This is a classic metaphor in the discipline of STS.

Here we see technological momentum defined by Hughes with a metaphor from physics:


 * Technological systems, even after prolonged growth and consolidation [...] acquire momentum. They have a mass of technical and organizational components; they possess direction or goals; and they display a rate of growth suggesting velocity (1987: 76).

Hughes uses another physics metaphor - trajectory - to explain the durability of direction in technological systems:


 * The durability of artifacts and of knowledge in a system suggests the notion of trajectory [...] (1987: 77).

Comparing technological systems to ecologies in the biological sciences, Hughes metaphorically explains:


 * Durable physical artifacts project into the future the socially constructed characteristics acquired in the past when they were designed. This is analogous to the persistence of acquired characteristics in a changing environment (1987: 77).

IV. Examples in Philosophy*
In 1651, Thomas Hobbes opened //Leviathan// stating that life is "a motion of limbs" and asked rhetorically: "what is the heart, but a spring; and the nerves, but so many strings; and the joints, but so many wheels, giving motion to the whole body"**. A little over 300 years passed and Deleuze and Guattari open their //Anti-Oedipus// proclaiming "An organ-machine is plugged into an energy-source-machine: the one produces a flow that the other interrupts. The breast is a machine that produces milk, and the mouth a machine coupled to it. [...] For every organ-machine, an energy-machine: all the time flows and interruptions" (1972: 1-2). Their //rhizome// is a now-classic metaphor.

V. Criticism
Metaphors used for the purpose of articulation have limited utility. For instance, "not surprisingly, spatial metaphors vary, to a certain degree, across language communities (for example, in English and German down-hill generally implies that things are getting worse,whereas in Italian down-hill implies that things are becoming better or easier)," explain Maass and Suitner. "Thus, although humans are universally exposed to similar forces and conditions (such as gravity), there is a certain variability in metaphors linking source and target domains [... T]he cross-cultural approach has opened the path for an alternative interpretation, namely, that such biases have cultural underpinnings" (2011: 160).

Post-Kantian philosophers find difficulty connecting (phenomenal) experience with a (noumenal) materiality. Generally, this is at best an imperfect representation. Metaphor forms a correlation between two nuomenal materials (e.g. a machine and a breast) with the intention of generating a more useful or communicable phenomenal experience. For Schopenhauer, the phenomenal representation of the thing-in-itself is the Idea. Metaphor is thus a connection of two Ideas. If the Idea should be regarded with some skepticism regarding its likeness with the thing-in-itself, and we see metaphor as a correlational relationship, the potential errors of the metaphor are additive-multiplicative. In another view, this dualistic approach misses the mark. Referencing Wittgenstein, Fortun and Bernstein wrote that "The statement that would speak the distinction between the real and the metaphoric cannot be part of the system of real and metaphoric statements; it is outside that system and hence unspeakable" (1998).

__Works cited:__
Fortun, M. and H.J. Bernstein (1998). //Muddling Through//. Counterpoint. Hobbes, T. (1651) //Leviathan//. Kindle edition, unpaginated. Introduction section. Hughes, T. P. (2011) "The Evolution of Large Technological Systems," in //The Political Economy of Science, Technology, and Innovation//, edited by Ben R. Martin and Paul Nightingale. Lewis, Charleton T.; Charles Short. (n.d.) "mōtus". //A Latin Dictionary//. Tufts University: The Perseus Project. Retreived November 19, 2011, from http://www.perseus.tufts.edu/hopper/text?doc=Perseus%3Atext%3A1999.04.0059%3Aentry%3D%2329780. Maass, A. and Caterina Suitner. (2011). //Social Psychology//; Vol. 42(3):159–164. Merriam-Webster Dictionary. (n.d.) metaphor. Retrieved November 19, 2011, from Merriam-Webster.com website: http://www.merriam-webster.com/dictionary/metaphor Online Etymology Dictionary. (n.d.) metaphor. Retrieved November 19, 2011, from Dictionary.com website: http://dictionary.reference.com/browse/metaphor


 * Including D&G in a philosophy section was done with tongue firmly planted in cheek, and a giggle. It sounded weird.