All denotation and abstraction has its metaphorical roots in the lived world
Language is constituted by metaphor, and every word is metaphorically linked to the something in the lived world. Metaphor (subserved by the right hemisphere (The right hemisphere is responsible for the capacity to understand metaphor)) comes before denotation (subserved by the left hemisphere). This is a historical truth, in the sense that denotative language, even philosophical and scientific language, are derived from metaphors founded on immediate experience of the tangible world. In early times, language and its referents climbed up from the concrete to the abstract on the steps of metaphors, even, we may say, created the abstract on the bases of metaphors.
In physics, we have force, acceleration (to increase one’s steps), inertia (originally an indolent person), impedance, resistance, fields, and now charm. In physiology, the metaphier of a machine has been at the very center of discovery. We understand the brain by metaphors to everything from batteries and telegraphy to computers and holograms. Medical practice is sometimes dictated by metaphor. In the eighteenth century, the heart in fever was like a boiling pot, and so bloodletting was prescribed to reduce its fuel. And even today, a great deal of medicine is based upon the military metaphor of defense of the body against attacks of this or that. The very concept of law in Greek derives from nomos, the word for the foundations of a building. To be liable, or bound in law, comes from the Latin ligare, meaning to bind with cord.
Metaphor is centrally a matter of thought, not just words. Metaphorical language is a reflection of metaphorical thought … Eliminating metaphor would eliminate philosophy. The metaphoric character of philosophy is not unique to philosophic thought. It is true of all abstract human thought, especially science. Conceptual metaphor is what makes most abstract thought possible. It is also a truth about epistemology, how we understand things. Any one thing can be understood only in terms of another thing, and ultimately that must come down to a something that is experienced, outside the system of signs (i.e. by the body). The very words which form the building blocks of explicit thought are themselves all originally metaphors, grounded in the human body and its experience.
References
-
McgilChrist, Iain. (2010). The Master and His Emissary CHAPTER 3 LANGUAGE TRUTH AND MUSIC (Epub p. 240). London, UK: Yale University Press.
-
Jaynes, Julian. (1976). The Origin of Consciousness in the Breakdown of the Bicameral Mind Chapter 2 Consciousness (Epub p. 59). New York, NY: Houghton Mifflin Company.
Metadata
Type:🔴 Tags: Philosophy / Biology / Neuroscience / Psychology / Neuropsychology Status:☀️