The "Metaphor" Sting: The scorpion speaks

[thompnickson2]

Hi, everybody. 

 

Let me just say that raising metaphoric nature of a conversation during a conversation is not an attempt to  the Frog.   It is always done because the scorpion senses that the frog is swimming in circles and has lost sight both of the river and the bank.  I long to have a conversation about the metaphoric nature of scientific thought.  I long to analyze scientific metaphors with you all.  What is a good metaphor, what is a bad one.  What is a strong metaphor, what is a weak one.  How does this metaphor alert us to some possibilities, blind us to others.  What expectations does this metaphor lead us to other than the facts that inspired it?  What is the relation between “popular” books and rigorous exposition.  It cannot be that such books are only “sloppy” representations of how Scientists really think.  I come from a field which was guided for 40 years by the metaphor of The Selfish Gene, which was presented in a popular book which was read and cited by thousands of practitioners in the field.)

 

I don’t expect (or even hope for) any response now.  But I would like you to ponder for the future what the role of the scorpion is in a conversation.  And here, we see, where the analysis of my metaphor might be useful.   Is the scorpion ever useful to the frog?  Perhaps the scorpion should be conceived as a honey-bee who serves up sugary snacks when the frog flags at mid river.  I think there is an algebra of metaphoric thought and we need to make it explicit and understand it better.   Is there a role for scorpions in an intellectual ecosystem?

 

All the best and have a wonderful summer,

 

Nick Thompson

[hidden email]

https://wordpress.clarku.edu/nthompson/

 

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[Frank Wimberly-2]

Dear Nick,

This is not an effort to develop an algebra of metaphors but to channel Hywel as well as I can.  You have often seized on his saying something like "When a photon hits an electron orbiting a the nucleus of an atom it is bumped to a higher state but it wants to return to it's original state."  You are charmed by this use of the word "wants".  If you said to Hywel, "come on, electrons don't have desires", I think he would say, "Of course not.  In that situation the electron would, with high probability, return to its original state within a nanosecond.  To say that it "wants to" is an entirely unnecessary metaphor that captures both the near inevitability and the rapidity of the occurrence in colorful language."

On Mon, May 10, 2021, 11:29 AM <[hidden email]> wrote:

Hi, everybody. 

 

Let me just say that raising metaphoric nature of a conversation during a conversation is not an attempt to  the Frog.   It is always done because the scorpion senses that the frog is swimming in circles and has lost sight both of the river and the bank.  I long to have a conversation about the metaphoric nature of scientific thought.  I long to analyze scientific metaphors with you all.  What is a good metaphor, what is a bad one.  What is a strong metaphor, what is a weak one.  How does this metaphor alert us to some possibilities, blind us to others.  What expectations does this metaphor lead us to other than the facts that inspired it?  What is the relation between “popular” books and rigorous exposition.  It cannot be that such books are only “sloppy” representations of how Scientists really think.  I come from a field which was guided for 40 years by the metaphor of The Selfish Gene, which was presented in a popular book which was read and cited by thousands of practitioners in the field.)

 

I don’t expect (or even hope for) any response now.  But I would like you to ponder for the future what the role of the scorpion is in a conversation.  And here, we see, where the analysis of my metaphor might be useful.   Is the scorpion ever useful to the frog?  Perhaps the scorpion should be conceived as a honey-bee who serves up sugary snacks when the frog flags at mid river.  I think there is an algebra of metaphoric thought and we need to make it explicit and understand it better.   Is there a role for scorpions in an intellectual ecosystem?

 

All the best and have a wonderful summer,

 

Nick Thompson

[hidden email]

https://wordpress.clarku.edu/nthompson/

 

- .... . -..-. . -. -.. -..-. .. ... -..-. .... . .-. .
FRIAM Applied Complexity Group listserv
Zoom Fridays 9:30a-12p Mtn GMT-6  bit.ly/virtualfriam
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FRIAM-COMIC http://friam-comic.blogspot.com/
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- .... . -..-. . -. -.. -..-. .. ... -..-. .... . .-. .
FRIAM Applied Complexity Group listserv
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[Frank Wimberly-2]

p.s.  Have a wonderful trip and a pleasant summer in New Braintree+

On Mon, May 10, 2021, 12:13 PM Frank Wimberly <[hidden email]> wrote:

Dear Nick,

This is not an effort to develop an algebra of metaphors but to channel Hywel as well as I can.  You have often seized on his saying something like "When a photon hits an electron orbiting a the nucleus of an atom it is bumped to a higher state but it wants to return to it's original state."  You are charmed by this use of the word "wants".  If you said to Hywel, "come on, electrons don't have desires", I think he would say, "Of course not.  In that situation the electron would, with high probability, return to its original state within a nanosecond.  To say that it "wants to" is an entirely unnecessary metaphor that captures both the near inevitability and the rapidity of the occurrence in colorful language."

On Mon, May 10, 2021, 11:29 AM <[hidden email]> wrote:

Hi, everybody. 

 

Let me just say that raising metaphoric nature of a conversation during a conversation is not an attempt to  the Frog.   It is always done because the scorpion senses that the frog is swimming in circles and has lost sight both of the river and the bank.  I long to have a conversation about the metaphoric nature of scientific thought.  I long to analyze scientific metaphors with you all.  What is a good metaphor, what is a bad one.  What is a strong metaphor, what is a weak one.  How does this metaphor alert us to some possibilities, blind us to others.  What expectations does this metaphor lead us to other than the facts that inspired it?  What is the relation between “popular” books and rigorous exposition.  It cannot be that such books are only “sloppy” representations of how Scientists really think.  I come from a field which was guided for 40 years by the metaphor of The Selfish Gene, which was presented in a popular book which was read and cited by thousands of practitioners in the field.)

 

I don’t expect (or even hope for) any response now.  But I would like you to ponder for the future what the role of the scorpion is in a conversation.  And here, we see, where the analysis of my metaphor might be useful.   Is the scorpion ever useful to the frog?  Perhaps the scorpion should be conceived as a honey-bee who serves up sugary snacks when the frog flags at mid river.  I think there is an algebra of metaphoric thought and we need to make it explicit and understand it better.   Is there a role for scorpions in an intellectual ecosystem?

 

All the best and have a wonderful summer,

 

Nick Thompson

[hidden email]

https://wordpress.clarku.edu/nthompson/

 

- .... . -..-. . -. -.. -..-. .. ... -..-. .... . .-. .
FRIAM Applied Complexity Group listserv
Zoom Fridays 9:30a-12p Mtn GMT-6  bit.ly/virtualfriam
un/subscribe http://redfish.com/mailman/listinfo/friam_redfish.com
FRIAM-COMIC http://friam-comic.blogspot.com/
archives: http://friam.471366.n2.nabble.com/

- .... . -..-. . -. -.. -..-. .. ... -..-. .... . .-. .
FRIAM Applied Complexity Group listserv
Zoom Fridays 9:30a-12p Mtn GMT-6  bit.ly/virtualfriam
un/subscribe http://redfish.com/mailman/listinfo/friam_redfish.com
FRIAM-COMIC http://friam-comic.blogspot.com/
archives: http://friam.471366.n2.nabble.com/