Thank, Glen,
You are a good sport. I apologize for the rhetorical technique, which is trappy. (I tried in my teaching NEVER to ask anyone a question to which I thought I knew the answer, and, of course, I violated that rule, here.) You are kind to humor me.
You answer perfectly demonstrates the two problems with "plain speaking". (1) It inadequately specifies. Having watched this simple demonstration, you would know more about the path of the eraser than you have said. You would know, for instance, that it went "down" .... i.e., "fell". (2) Nevertheless, scrupulous as you have been, it implies a [micro] metaphor, and it says much more than is known. It asserts the "identity" of the eraser, by analogy with other objects that we have seen move behind another object and reappear. It asserts "object constancy" as a theory. Little did you know that the notebook is equipped with a special net that catches the first eraser and that I released a second eraser as the first fell into the net.
I have worked with my students with this simple demonstration ever since the 70's, and we keep coming back to the same conclusion. That the effort to remove metaphor from description is hopeless and that the information price paid in the attempt to mimimize metaphor is too great. This conclusion is equivalent to saying that description and explanation are the same operation seen from different points of view, and that the distinction between poet and bench scientist must come from some place other than their use of metaphors.
Nick
Nicholas S. Thompson
Emeritus Professor of Psychology and Biology
Clark University
http://home.earthlink.net/~nickthompson/naturaldesigns/
-----Original Message-----
From: Friam [mailto:[hidden email]] On Behalf Of glen ep ropella
Sent: Wednesday, March 11, 2015 7:34 AM
To: The Friday Morning Applied Complexity Coffee Group
Subject: Re: [FRIAM] metaphor and talking across skill levels
On 03/10/2015 08:30 PM, Nick Thompson wrote:
> Imagine that I am standing before you holding a flat object, such as a
> notebook in my left hand, flat side to you. I hold a small object in
> my right hand, let's say an art gum eraser, so that appears to you
> above and behind the plain of notebook. I release the eraser. Please
> give me a "plain-spoken" description of what you would see.
I would have responded, had I received your previous post... In any case, here's what I would expect to see: The eraser would move for awhile, disappear, reappear, and again move for awhile before stopping.
--
glen e. p. ropella, 971-255-2847, http://tempusdictum.com
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