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Metaphors in Science: A Change of Perspective
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Author(s): Héctor A. Palma (Universidad Nacional de San Martín, Argentina)
Copyright: 2018
Pages: 13
Source title:
Philosophical Perceptions on Logic and Order
Source Author(s)/Editor(s): Jeremy Horne (International Institute of Informatics and Systemics, USA)
DOI: 10.4018/978-1-5225-2443-4.ch008
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Abstract
Usually it is held that metaphors are expressions in which something is said but it is evoked or suggest another thing. It is also said that they are - or should be - almost exclusive patrimony of literary or vulgar languages and are not relevant in scientific discourse. However, there are three arguments that lead one to suspect that there is something wrong in these points of view. First, the ubiquity of metaphor in past and present sciences. Second, in almost all such cases, metaphorical expressions are not substitutes or paraphrases of other literal expressions that scientists would use with their colleagues but instead are the common way they are expressed; there is just no other language, metaphors are part of the technical vocabulary. Third, the theoretical and practical consequences of metaphors are part of the corpus or theoretical system to which they belong, in the same manner that the consequences of theorems of an axiomatic system are part of the theoretical system. The three preceding arguments allow us to sketch the following hypothesis: metaphors used by scientists (at least a lot of them) say something in themselves, but are not mere subsidiaries of other literal expressions; therefore, they have legitimate and irreplaceable cognitive and epistemic functions. This change in approach challenges at least four different problem fields: 1) the concept of metaphor; 2) the standard epistemological tradition and its postmodern heresies such as the social studies of science; 3) the history of science; and finally, 4) the biological and cognitive sciences. These four problems will be addressed in this article.
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