Gregory Bateson put it like this:
"Logic is a very elegant tool," he [Gregory Bateson] said, "and we've got a lot of mileage out of it for two thousand years or so. The trouble is, you know, when you apply it to crabs and porpoises, and butterflies and habit formation" -- his voice trailed off, and he added after a pause, looking out over the ocean -- "you know, to all those pretty things" -- and now, looking straight at me [Capra] -- "logic won't quite do ... because that whole fabric of living things is not put together by logic. You see when you get circular trains of causation, as you always do in the living world, the use of logic will make you walk into paradoxes." ...
He stopped again, and at that moment I suddenly had an insight, making a connection to something I had been interested in for a long time. I got very excited and said with a provocative smile: "Heraclitus knew that! ... And so did Lao Tzu."
"Yes, indeed; and so do the trees over there. Logic won't do for them."
"So what do they use instead?"
"Metaphor."
"Metaphor?"
"Yes, metaphor. That's how the whole fabric of mental interconnections holds together. Metaphor is right at the bottom of being alive."
Fritjof Capra, Uncommon Wisdom: Conversations with remarkable people (1988) Bantam, New York [page 76-77]
This notion is further supported by George Lakoff in his books, Metaphors We Live By and Philosophy In The Flesh. What he says is that thinking is an integral part of our body and its relationship with the environment and that objective, value free thought is something of a myth. Hence, if I feel 'on top' of the world or, conversely 'down', this makes sense in terms of the basic orientation of the body and our state of being. And so we have embodied philosophy.We use many metaphors quite unconsciously, such as seeing argument in terms of war, which is quite 'indefensible' as 'attacking' each other will only lead to 'wiping out' the human race if you get my 'point'!
Now, some metaphors are relatively fixed, but high-level ones can be framed to reflect action from a certain perspective. 'Surgical' strikes by military planes are presented as part of an 'operation' associated with maintaining 'health and life' rather than destroying it.
So, in a nutshell, we manipulate metaphors unconsciously, on the one hand, and with great awareness to expand and add to thought, on the other. A story is simply an extended metaphor, like those related to creation of life itself. Look at this painting and its interpretation, which could so easily depict Meta for Dialogue! (lots more re-presentations there to look at)
And so from the beginning of time, let's look at something very recent: your subconscious is your body.:
"The cellular level, where emotions are instigated, is also where unexpressed emotions are stored. The catharsis of illness expresses the sudden, overwhelming release of information that has been trapped in our bodies. What Freud termed the 'subconscious' mind is actually a measurable physical process. In other words, there is no 'mind-body problem'. Your body is your subconscious mind."
And so we find that thinking with your feet and other parts of your body is a powerful way of 'understanding' in a world that is bent on educating us out of our creativity.
'Thumbs up' for the future, I say!
46 comments:
Well, the fact is that we live in a melting pot and more and more we need to adapt ourselves and to learn new skills in order to deal with this so competitive and furious world. People must not enter a spiritual winter, they have to be dynamic and creative otherwise they'll be blown away. Creativity is the keyword for everything and the sweet smell of success! :)
Hello, Ian.
First of all, let me say that I think your text is very interesting, but complex, too. However is Psychology an easy science? Of course not. So, let’s think a little bit about it!
Some weeks ago you posted on my blog a mysterious comment. You wrote my story was ‘a metaphor for something else’. At that moment, I did not realise what you meant, but now, after a profound reflection, I understand. And it is true.
My story is a metaphor for my desires and the kind of life I want.
"Your body is your subconscious mind"! That's a good metaphor isn't it?! When you think of yourself and your body the truth is there's nothing more representative of your ideas, your mind, than what you make out of your body. In fact you give meaning to your body as being YOU! Are you... your body? Or your mind? You're both. But mind overlaps body I think. Well, unless you have Parkinson or other disease and cannot control your body. But you mostly can.
You can't control what you think though, even if you choose to keep it quiet. Saying one's mind is what the human being lives for, I think. So Man cannot keep quiet for long (specially women), so we, mankind, use of metaphors to send our message across and not seem to rude or "full of ourselves". If metaphor is giving meaning to something by comparison that does not mean that specific thing, then we all live in a metaphorical world ruled by laws of religion, social status,... Therefore we cannot take the world as it is given to us but think out of ourselves, out of our own learning experiences that is.
So I think this is a good post as it calls attention upon probably the most interesting subject ever: Do we know what the world really is and are we willing to know where we stand in it!!!
I've found this subject very interesting.
We use metaphors continuously and most of the times we don't even notice that we are using them.
The most popular book of the world is the bible and people don't realize that great of the information, stories and beliefs stored there may be only metaphors, we have for example the Adam and Eve history represented on the "eternal life" painting showing how a metaphor can lead to a huge misunderstanding.
What I do know is that we always need to look at both sides of a situation, a concept or a story. I also believe in what Dr. Perth says because there is no doubt that our body has different responses to different situations like for example anger and joy. Educating ourselves and learning how our mind and body work together and also educating the others may be a huge step towards knowledge and a good way for keeping creativity alive.
We are so used to use the same words and phrases repeatedly, and constantly in similar ways, that we no longer know what we want to say. By using metaphors we have the chance to see the world in a different perspective.
I would like to centre my comment in the relation between metaphor and translation which is a topic that I will expand in a future post in my Blog.
It is also curious the whole process of interpretation that we are involved when we have to understand something that is not so obvious and that can have lots of meanings.
On one hand metaphors can be a huge barrier for translators due to its complexity and its power to produce ambiguous interpretations. When we have to translate a creative writing text we must be very careful because the same word can be concerned, in some cases, to opposite meanings so we must have the capacity to deal with this kind of language it can take hours and hours which is something that most of translators don’t have.
On the other hand most of people who are working in this area like to be challenged by language and its traps and is in this kind of difficult texts that we can distinguish a good translator from a bad one.
As you said we use metaphors in our daily life without even noticing it so we can come to the conclusion that metaphor represent a big part of our lives and can describe what can’t be described.
When I think about education nowadays I´m almost forced to connect it´s semantic meaning with the idea of having structured subjects that asphyxiate creativity and this interesting capacity humans possess, innovation. I´m tired of attending classes where people just take out notes, specially on this literary field, without even trying to understand why some authors spent their lives defending one idea, one ideal. I'm sure we'd be happier if we paid attention to some metaphors life presents us. In Bible as in life, sometimes we should just keep the moral part, for me it's like psychology, it can really help us understanding some aspects of our life, like the behaviourist philosophy that Skinner brought up, or Piaget's different stages of life. It's a bit confusing for me to comment this post because there are so many different areas included, that difficult my focus. Just to conclude I would like to say metaphors are an excellent way of making mental exercise, because it makes us think on the different meanings one story or one word may have and how we can use it to develop and present interesting ideas.
José Eduardo
When we talk about metaphors, the first thing that comes into our minds is literature. We are used to study the different types of metaphors in order to understand a little bit better the writer’s view. But I believe that people don’t realize how surrounded we are by the use of metaphors in our daily bases. When we read the Gregory Bateson speech and he tells us that “Logic won’t do for them” referring to the trees, he evokes metaphores, why? I believe he’s trying to explain that a metaphor will, perhaps, give some sort of life to those trees. For instance, when you say “That throws some light into the question”, the light doesn’t move or doesn’t get throwned anywhere, by using a metaphor, in this case, a complex one, you are attributing some life to that light. By using metaphors quite unconsciously, we also have embodied philosophy. When we use mental rotation or mental imagery, image schemes, gestures, sign language, color terms, or conceptual metaphor we are creating sentences and phrases using our brain images to describe certain realities without using the usual laymen language. By other words, our brain works as a metaphorical construction. By looking at the painting we could have many interpretations that our brain could construct as it looks at it, but after reading the description by its painter Val Jean we have a different perspective of it. We are aware of a huge dimension of dreams and meditations that went into that painting and we look at it with different eyes. When we read the article about Dr. Candace Pert we realize that our body may reflect our emotions; how does that happen? When emotions are trapped inside our bodies, the release of those emotions happen through a physical process, so we think with our feet when we dance, we think with our eyes when we take pictures, we think with our hands when we work with clay, etc. Our creativity is expressed through our body, mind and soul. The brain needs to be fed and cultivated. So I believe it is our job to keep planting trees in our brain, so they can grow strong and beautiful.
Liliana Ferreira
I found this post very interesting because even though we use metaphors everyday some people don't even realize we do this, or in many case they are just not aware of the wide range of existing metaphors or of how often they are used.
It is with texts like this that people notice those little things, the most common things in our lives and possible some of the more important/useful.
Hello!
One of my favorite definitions on metaphors comes from Diomedes. He says that a metaphor is "the transferring of things and words from their proper signification to an improper similitude for the sake of beauty, necessity, polish or emphasis.".
Something that your text made me realize was that metaphors are not only used as a creative writing mechanism - they are actually all around us (one example that I found quite quirky was the submarine sandwich - this is an example metonym.)
One conclusion that has already been suggested here in the comments is that our culture creates the intellectual bubble necessary for this metaphoric epidemic to branch out. You made a really interesting point when you talked about the reason for War - one can only wonder how many chapters of History was written based on a metaphor.
I agree with Aristotle when he says that The greatest thing by far is to be a master of metaphor. [It is] a sign of genious since a good metaphor implies an intuitive perception of the similarity in dissimilars. A good, interesting metaphor is always a sign of a well-bread speaker/orator - one that can captivate an audience, entice their mind and their spirit and drive them to act.
Metaphor is a very good way to express ourselves without being repetitive and it is a very good tool when we are doing a speech. Sometimes we even use metaphors without noticing and this is a sign that we can “create a world” around what we are saying. And when you say that you thing with your feet you're acknowledging that your body is actually what stores your feelings are trapped. That is why George Lakoff says that thinking is an integral part of your body. You can’t escape from thinking and metaphors derive from that.
ioanna_gr.
As i can assure you the word metaphor derives from the preposition `meta` and the verb `ferw`that means to express, to transfer. So, who can be able to say that metaphors are not motivating and stimulating the mind? Who is able to say that using a metaphor can not underline the situation you are in that specific moment? ...
Thus, i believe that metaphors are the key of talking in two ways without being afraid that anybody may be offended, as, there is the second interpretation too...
In my point of view, a metaphor is the best way for us to make our speech more fluid and we can assure that it would not be too much boring.
Even if we are not aware of that, the truth is that we are always using metaphors in our daily lives. When talking to our friends, or with our teachers, we use those expression or maybe sentences, so that the person who we are talking to can also enjoy what we are trying to transmit.
I also think that a good metaphor makes our lives more creative, we have to have imagination and a good memory to know some metaphors, and to know how to use them and when. We can’t use the wrong metaphor at the wrong time.
A metaphor is a good way to communicate.
What I like about metaphors is that we use it in our everyday life and not only in literary texts like some people might think. Sometimes we feel that we have to use a metaphor to express what we say and, like you explained, it has to do with our body and subconscious mind (Freud’s theory). I really liked the way you introduced this theme with the story about the little girl and the quotes from Fritjof Capra’s book.
From the use of a metaphor we can explain so many things that without this kind of support it could be disastrous. Furthermore, we can turn our speech into something almost literary. Thus, I think metaphor is important to our communication and interpretation of things, for example, in works of art; as you said, “A story is simply an extended metaphor, like those related to creation of life itself. Look at this painting and its interpretation, which could so easily depict Meta for Dialogue! (lots more re-presentations there to look at)”.
So, keep using metaphors, people! :)
Isabel Alves
WOW!!!
What huge comments!! I'm scared, Ian! I don't think I am able to write a similar amount of words on a comment about metaphors! I would like to invite you to come an check my blog instead, in order to get acquainted with my thoughts about metaphors. I've already left a fresh and entertaining post which I wouldn't feel quite comfortable if I would have to repeat myself all over again.
Anyway, I agree when you say that our current education system is far from suitable in terms of expanding Men's horizons and capacity to create new and interesting things. Instead, we are being drawn into a "doorless white room" in which we are taught to accept all and to question little.
However, one should believe in change and hope the creativity we once had as a child will linger within each of us.
After all, we might never quit being a child!
I completely agree with you. Metaphors are a way to describe something. Authors use them to make their writing more interesting or entertaining.
Unlike similes that use the words “as” or “like” to make a comparison, metaphors state that something is something else.
I've found this subject interesting. We always use many metaphors quite unconsciously.They create new meanings; they allow us to write about feelings, thoughts, things, experiences, etc. for which there are no easy words; they are necessary.
As you mentioned, that some metaphors are relatively fixed ex:"he has a heart of stone",etc.
I've found difficult to understand the part about "Embodied philosophy". I liked better the story about the creation of life.This story is simply an extended metaphor, for example: the "golden" apple symbolizes the forbidden fruit of knowledge or Red serpent indicating danger.
People get so accustomed to using the same words and phrases over and over, and always in the same ways, that they no longer know what they mean. Creative writers have the power to make the ordinary strange and the strange ordinary, making life interesting again.So, I suggest for everybody to use more metaphors in dayly life to make our speech more powerful, interesting and to enliven ordinary language!!!
Well, first of all I have to say that I’m really surprise about the concept “metaphor”: I learnt its concept in Portuguese classes and now I have to adapt it and apply it in Psychology and subjects even more complex.
However, in my opinion, languages and its studies are the principal basis for every action in your life; from the easiest to the most difficult. Metaphor it’s like an instrument which gives to human nature creativity, imagination, richness and wonder. Beyond that, it takes us to the other world, a world which is only in our dreams and all human being wants to achieve it.
We use metaphors in our daily lives, unconsciously, even to explain something that happen to us five minutes ago to a friend.
The conclusion that I take from your post is that metaphors are some kind of veins of every language.
I agree with you Ian, Metaphors are indeed key for creativity, but isn’t it much more than that? Isn’t our life a metaphor at times? Perhaps it is a very complex and extended metaphor. Some see life as an adventure while others see life as a constant battle which can either help us grow or hinder us.
I’m going to try to add a new perspective to your motivating piece of writing and avoid trying to get into G. Bateson, since he’s been such a headache lately.
Therapeutic metaphor is a type of conceptual metaphor, which refers to the understanding of an idea. Now you may wonder why I’m bringing this up, well Therapeutic metaphors are used in Psychotherapy.
This is actually more common than meets the eye. You have probably used this when explaining to a child why his or her parents died, by using a different context, like two flowers in the garden which have withered. The child at hand may not understand why his or her parents past-away but it is likely he or she will react to the ‘flower situation’.
Metaphors are alternative means of opening up possibilities and new behaviors. They encourage patient and therapist to search for a creative approach for events under scrutiny.
Although, I realize now how psychotherapists have to be aware of a number of bias, for instance: awareness of the influence of gender bias, during therapy or the various ways bias may influence the treatment of gay and lesbian psychotherapy patients.
To further understand Conceptual metaphors and according to wikipedia conceptual metaphors refers to the understanding of one idea, for example, understanding quantity in terms of directionality (e.g. "prices are rising").
This idea was first extensively explored by George Lakoff and Mark Johnson in their work Metaphors We Live By. But I will not go into this any further since you have already gave a fair view on How G. Lakoff and M. Johnson support and develop this.
Carlos Rodrigues
That was a post… Well well well… My heart is stressfully hammering! What shall I say to this?
My opinion… My research…
“There is a growing commitment to the idea that the mind must be understood in the context of its relationship to a physical body that interacts with the world.”
Therefore, human cognition, rather than being centralized, has deep roots in sensorimotor processing. You wouldn’t understand the World without sensorimotor processing, right?
When I say I’m feeling down, I’m connecting my “depressive mood” with the physical image regarding my posture.
So I can never separate sensory and motor activity. My brain is always netting my knowledge together with every new achievement I reach.
And you would also not understand the world if your cognition wouldn’t be situated, and that is the use of metaphors, only making sense in the context of a real-world environment.
My English teacher is an earthquake!
When I say this, I mean that when I see my teacher I relate him to an earthquake, an “aggressive” movement. Shake, shake, shake! This is metaphor, expanding and illustrating my panorama view upon the World.
So metaphor is an impressive brain construction, and I do believe that you need a certain mental maturity and flexibility to use metaphors, deep and thoughtful metaphors. Standard metaphors are the product of some educated brains which survived until today. As when Shakespeare said: ‘all the world’s a stage, and all the men and women merely players’…
Nowadays, this metaphor lost its eloquent meaning, don’t you all agree? We can understand it, and wonder how this man, in his time, came up with something like this! It is just poetry? No doubt! But the birthplace of poetry is your brain, your mental flexibility to see something more in things than there actually is… Amazing… Simply gorgeous!
And this is creativity, creativity that makes us grow and expand our knowledge! …and makes our world both more beautiful and more repulsive. You get closer to the core of humanity, to its more perverse and unexpected side… Hence, you are closer to the enlightenment…
Keyword: CREATIVITY!
My English teacher is an earthquake!
Marie
19 comments? WOW impressive! Funny thing about metaphors is that we might use it but other people won't understand it and sometimes that's the beauty of it. Nowadays I think people don't really care about metaphors, they don't have time to think or even will, especially young people. "Our" teenagers (Portuguese and not British) couldn’t care less about metaphors, and they are not creative. It's not their fault. I can perfectly remember when I was starting to learn English; I had to write for three years my daily routine! I got to a point where I wanted to write and learn something else and I couldn't. Teenagers should read more, but also higher quality books. But they don't do because they have no reason to, actually it's already a burden to read the one little book. But if they'd learn how beautiful metaphors are I think they'd have a different view of life!
(By the way I changed the location of my website, because I found a more interesting place where I could make more things to develop my blog. I left the link on my old blog)
Ana Filipa
So, what's 'breath taking' now?:)
I totally agree with joana when she says it is interesting but complex...
Well, I would say life itself is a metaphor…The most simple and, at the same time, the most meaningful one. It is a metaphor for joy, for tears, for laughs, for love, for passion, for madness, for the feelings we embrace and the ones we try to get over… Life is a metaphor for each and every single living being… And every little detail of every single life has a major meaning, a deeper one that we may not even know…
It’s a part of our own selves... how could we possibly live without it?
As Wet Wet Wet used to say “I feel it in my fingers, I feel it in my toes…”
Metaphors are all around…
Be cautious!:p
Hello, Ian
I have to say that I agree with some 'points' that my colleges commented on
the previous comments.
The truth is, that this text is very interesting but a little complex, too.In
fact, I had to read it twice before being sure of having understood every
single idea! The text is connected with psychology, which is not my
preference in what takes to what to read or to study. But themes likes this
one, that are so much intrinsic in what or who we are, are never boring to
read about or to study about!
In deed, in our daily life or daily speech, and without paying much atention to it, we use a lot of metaphors to make our speech less repetitive and easier to be understood!This shows how much a methaphor is important!
sílvia
I found this post very interesting because it was the first time I thought in metaphors out of its literary purposes(!) but I entirely agree with it.
According to Sir Ken Robinson, "we are educating people out of their creativity" and I think he is completely right because we are not used to think 'outside the box'.
A metaphor is defined as a figure of speech or something that we use to replace "normal" words in order to help others understand or enjoy our message. I mean, people use metaphors for so many years that some expressions are part of our daily life and most of the times we don’t even notice we are talking with metaphors because, there are some many little expressions that use them, that we do it unconsciously, like if it was part of our "normal" conversations.
So, I think it was very interesting to get to know more about metaphor and I think this is a really nice post...
Keep on with the great work, have a nice day*
well, there is so much to say about metaphors isn't it? It is true that most of times we use a metaphor we don't realise we are using it because we grow up hearing them. It is also true that literature use a lot of metaphors but the fact is that we don't even have to know how to write to create a metaphor. For instance, my grandmother is constantly using metaphors and it works mainly for children, it makes it easier for them to understand what they can or cannot do. Now, from my perspective of a future translator and once that's my blogs' subject, it is in fact one of the greatest difficulties for a translator to pass from one culture to another the very same idea transmitted by a metaphore (which tends to be ambiguous and may not make sense in other culture)
Metaphor, metaphor, metaphor….The first thing what I remember is “Majd az édes álom pillangó képében elvetôdôtt arra tarka kôntôsèben….”(Jànos AranY:Toldi)
It is one of the most famous metaphors in the Hungarian literature. And even if I would try to translated it could be a mission impossible .It’s one of the character of the metaphor, that it’s quite culture specific, isn’t it? There is metaphor, which can be used in one language; it is untranslatable, because to be understandable you have to know the culture of tat language .However nowadays in our globalize world a metaphor can be international as well .When I did the research of metaphor I found really interesting ,that there are many kind of list of metaphors, categories such as family ,computer ,farming ,fishing ,cooking ,sensory ,weather ,fun etc .And the lists the most popular metaphors in the media in 2006,2007 etc .The most popular metaphors are related of the most mark able events what happened in the resent time .Like surge ,storm ,tsunami etc.
Good metaphors have to have the following combination: accuracy, popularity, impact end relevance to the current period.
Even when they are not intentional, parallels can be drawn between most writing or language and other topics. In this way it can be seen that any theme in literature is a metaphor, using the story to convey information about human perception of the theme in question.
Like most of your comments said one thing is really importante at the world of metaphors too,CREATIVITY.
Eva Gyulai
I looked up the meaning of "metaphor" on the dictionary and it comes from Greek wich means "to transfer", it is the transference of the world into a new sense.
why are metaphor so important? why do we choose to use them or prefer to hear them instead of the hard,cruel,naked truth? Do we need to embelish everything around us in order to make it more beautiful or apealing?
I think it has to do with the fact that we are used to alter the world, to see it diferently evryday, to notice new things, to look at it with diferent perspectives and the need that human beings have to describe all of this, each of us in our own words.
We need metaphores to be fair with the world, to admire it in all is glory and beauty... simple words wouldn't be enough to describe it..
ana santos
Hi Ian!
I find Bateson's remarks on logic and metaphor really interesting. The opposition between the two concepts is, in fact, an opposition between two radically different views of life and the world.
Logic is a process defined «a priori» by certain rules that must be followed, whereas metaphor is a way towards understanding the world in multiple perspectives. Logic can make you attain one specific goal, while metaphor will guide you to several paths leading to several possible goals.
Logic and metaphor, however, are not mutually exclusive. There is a place for both of them in every sphere of life. Logic, of course, is essential in science and technology, yet even in such fields there is a place for metaphorical thinking. Politcs, culture and art, on the other hand, are the domains of metaphor, but logic may also be helpful there.
Metaphor!
It would be very intelligent, if I use a metaphor to comment your post! Actually it would sound very well, I might say. But from my point of view, it’s rather difficult to create one suddenly. Therefore, creativity is fundamental for this process.
However, I think that you talk about metaphors as something you build very quickly and without much effort from our brain, but I’m not that sure that it is that simple and if it is just a question of creativity. If it was like that, all of us would use it very often and would become a “metaphor genius”, don’t you think?
Personally, I agree that it obviously implies a certain kind of maturation -- thinking about it and trying to develop it, through analyzing the issue according to an unusual perspective. Or you might come up with one after what scientists call an “insight”, that is a brilliant idea that comes in a sudden… It’s creativity!
I don’t know if it is related to my self-esteem, but I have my doubts on what comes to create in a sudden such intellectually demanding process. Or do you think I’m seeing the point through a very high pattern?
Anyway, I’m not talking about all kinds of metaphors. There are those metaphors you use unconsciously. However, I believe that they no longer function as a real metaphor, if they are used during our everyday speech. We can’t simply compare metaphors from our conversations and the ones from a poem, for example. And when somebody created them for a specific context, sentence, or poem, it was just not creativity. It’s also their experience as writers and their intellectual maturation. Or am I wrong?
So, I think that metaphors are the result of CREATIVITY (according to Mare Nostrum’s opinion), but also of MATURATION.
In fact, metaphors make a text much more interesting and less monotonous… If you are able to catch them! ;)
Hello Ian
That was a very interesting approach about what means to you metaphor.
I really agree with you, most of the time we are using metaphors without noticing them, but they are sometimes the best way to express what we think and what we feel.
If I should explain what a metaphor is, I would say that a metaphor is a rhetoric trop that we often use unconsciously. A metaphor is similar to a simile, this means that a metaphor compares two thinks to each other without using "like", "as", or "than" to make this comparison. But that’s only the definition of it, and I think that everyone knows this. The way you approach this subject was quite more interesting.
I found a very interesting example of a metaphor witch was said by William Shakespeare:
All the world's a stage,
And all the men and women merely players;
They have their exits and their entrances;
I think that Shakespeare wanted to say that life is a theater.
Well I have nothing more to say about it.
hello, ian,
i would like to say that i agree with sir ken robinson, when he says that people are educatede out of their creativity. in my opinion the educational snystem is to blame, all we learn in high school is to memorise subjects, dump them on an exam paper and forget it. students are told qhat they should do, ther´s no room for creativity.
i think people use the most easy whay to comunicate, and to create a dialog, becouse society demands a it, there is no time to have a nice long complex conversation anymore. so a metaphors are important becouse if you drop one in a conversation with your friends it draws you out of your own routine and actialy makes you think in somenthing for a wile.
joana nicola
Although I have jsut read about this new concept of "embodied philossophy", I feel that it has been with me for quite some time.
There have been severall occasions for which words to describe them elluded me: landscapes of breathtaking beauty, a convergence of exhilarating feelings, the (insert "nounness" here)of it all. Those situations that send a shiver down your spine, give you goosebumps or that just make you go "wow" and stop you on the spot.
Metaphors help to convey in words something that is so significant or so intense or complex in its naturalness that are almost out of reach.
While I necessitate and understand the use of metaphors, sometimes it is easy to overlook them in a growingly synthetic and obsessed world.
It is a shame really, that people tend to grow eyes on the back of their heads, instead of a third one on their foreheads.
“Your body is your subconscious mind” – this is so true!! I believe that we show through our body, things that we are actually thinking unconsciously. We don’t say it, but our body moves in consequence, without we notice it! We can see a person’s state of mind through her/his body language!
A metaphor is a way of saying something in other words or indirectly, I mean, when you don’t want to be rude or when you don’t have the courage to say it with the whole words, you can always use a metaphor! – what you wanted to say is said and the person will understand if she/he is intelligent enough! (Like what Rui Veloso (a Portuguese musician) does in his song “Lunar Side” – he wants her lover to show him her lunar side, which means her bad side, her defects – so he uses the metaphor and also the euphemism to tell her this. I believe these two figures of speech are interconnected!)
But, metaphor can have a lot of meanings and it can also be subjective. Each person can understand/interpret it in different ways, it depends of a person’s experience of life; state of mind; ideas; personality!!
So choose the right metaphor for the right situation and for the right person!
Hello Ian,
So "your subconscious is your body"!?! This sentence is very... true, when you come to think of it. In fact, when our mind is well we tend to demonstrate it with our body. Some people do make-up, get well-dressed, put some perfume on, and others simply smile and are nice! Each one expresses him or herself in different ways, but the bottom line is that on the outside we show our state of mind. And the same happens when we are sad, angry, etc. It is like our body is the metaphor for what is going on on our subconscious!
I also liked the quote "educating us out of our creativity". I usually think that one can educate him or herself out of their own mistakes, but mistakes are also creative aren’t they? I mean if they are wrong it’s because they’re different from everything else, therefore they are creative. I believe that this so-called “creativity” is what makes us so special, because everyone has their own vices that lead them to the wrong choices, but these twists-and-turns can lead them to their greatest successes and victories. At least, this is what I like to think!
I liked your post very much, I find in it a great source of optimism. And that’s what makes us move on, isn’t it? Optimism… great word! Great metaphor!
Best wishes,
Cláudia Araújo.
Hello Ian!
So after reading this post of yours I can say that I completely agree with the vision of metaphor that the text defends.
Metaphor is a break that our minds take due to our world today - it's like an escape from reality for our minds- the "fabric of mental interconnections".
Thus we have a small shadow over the word 'future'- we can guess that it will be different from now (of course!)but that it will be our creativity that will help us fight. Through, what I've said before, helping us escape from reality and live our lives as a metaphor.
As you said:"thinking is an integral part of our body" and, in my opinion, it is through that particular feature that human beings distiguish themselves. No one can read your mind and you can do whatever you want with it!
I do support the use of some Methaphors: it isn't as strict as 'logic' and it can always help us see the world through a tiny, pink and heart-shaped glasses!
Then our creativity and mental health will grow! :)
Hello Ian!
So after reading this post of yours I can say that I completely agree with the vision of metaphor that the text defends.
Metaphor is a break that our minds take due to our world today - it's like an escape from reality for our minds- the "fabric of mental interconnections".
Thus we have a small shadow over the word 'future'- we can guess that it will be different from now (of course!)but that it will be our creativity that will help us fight. Through, what I've said before, helping us escape from reality and live our lives as a metaphor.
As you said:"thinking is an integral part of our body" and, in my opinion, it is through that particular feature that human beings distiguish themselves. No one can read your mind and you can do whatever you want with it!
I do support the use of some Methaphors: it isn't as strict as 'logic' and it can always help us see the world through a tiny, pink and heart-shaped glasses!
Then our creativity and mental health will grow! :)
Good morning Ian!
After reading your post, I will say that this is a very interesting text. It shows us the importance of metaphor. In my opinion it cannot only be used in literature but also when we are talking with someone and in almost everything in our daily lives. A metaphor is a way of transmitting some creativity and it captivates public, because it doesn't use specific words that are usually related to comparisons and people can perfectly understand what we are writing or saying by "suggesting" it.
Sometimes we can even give a kind of mistery while using this subjective comparisons.
You refer the word "creativity" and I completely agree with you in the fact that it can change many things by expanding our interests, knowledge and other perspectives.
So, let's everyone be creative and stop doing or acting like this word doesn't even exist!
Best wishes,
Cátia Pereira
"Originally, metaphor was a Greek word joining two elements. "meta" that means "over" and "pherein" that means "transport", "change"". All this to mean transport of literal meaning to figurative meaning.
Metaphor has numerous reflections since ancient ages (Aristoteles) until modern time.
Among all of them I selected the romantic view of Coleridge: Metaphor is "imagination in action".
In my opinion, to undress words of their ´connotative meaning is creating new worlds. It's clothing words with beautiful dresses and making them dance in an endless ball in new spaces, new emotions, new perceptions.
Isabel Martins
"Originally, metaphor was a Greek word joining two elements. "meta" that means "over" and "pherein" that means "transport", "change"". All this to mean transport of literal meaning to figurative meaning.
Metaphor has numerous reflections since ancient ages (Aristoteles) until modern time.
Among all of them I selected the romantic view of Coleridge: Metaphor is "imagination in action".
In my opinion, to undress words of their ´connotative meaning is creating new worlds. It's clothing words with beautiful dresses and making them dance in an endless ball in new spaces, new emotions, new perceptions.
Isabel Martins
Well, I must say I agree with you Ian... this post about metaphors is really interesting and so are some of the comments I´ve read! Well, indeed although we may not realise it we´re surrounded by metaphors and as you said on your other post, time itself is a metaphor!
It is true that metaphors stimulate your creativity…metaphors are really useful for us to describe and explain certain aspects of reality. Metaphors are not just words, they have the power to create an image on our mind that makes us understand certain things and even thoughts, much better. Here´s an example of a metaphor that I like and that explains what I´ve just said:
“All the world's a stage,
And all the men and women merely players;
They have their exits and their entrances”
(William Shakespear, As you like it)
Through this metaphor Shakespear tell us what´s his concept of life.
Metaphor is just one of those mysteries of language…
Metaphors…or how to make our language more interesting.
Language can be more than a simple mean of communication, more than a mere transmitter of contents from one person to another. It gives us the possibility to communicate with each other on different levels, to say more than just words. One of the most obvious ways to say something between the lines not just in literature but even on a daily basis is the use of metaphorical language.
Describing an event as earth shattering or a person as a volcano has a very different effect from saying that the event was great or the person has quite a temper. The use of metaphors helps our imagination to create a better picture of something and to make us understand things beyond the limits set by "plain words".
We also tend to remember those images better than other things simply told to us. It might be that they appeal more to us or that we just consider them more interesting than other messages we receive, but nevertheless it turns metaphors into an efficient mean not just to make oneself clear but also to say something that might be remembered.
Unfortunately metaphors aren't understood by everybody either why people aren't capable of reading between the lines or because a metaphor is bound to a certain background (cultural or historical references, etc.) that isn't chaired by everyone. This makes metaphors a subject for misunderstanding or other types of miscommunication and shows that they should be used with a certain cautions and consent of the audience.
Hi Ian!
I agree with you when you say that creativity is a major factor of our life, in every aspect of our lifes we are going to be confronted with different situations that will require the use of creativity.We can see in many examples that the most successfull people in the world are those that in some part of their lifes had the creativity to produce something completely new and different!People like Bill Gates, Steve Jobs and so on...
I also agree that our school sistem isn't a great promoter of cretivity, and is instead a producer of standard human beings,like in an Henry Ford (another successfull creative person) mass production assembly line.
So i do think that creativity is a decisive factor in our lives, and metaphors are a great way to promote it, since the ancient Greece people use metaphors as a form of knowledge, and as a cretive form of exposing their ideas, as per example did socrates (a successfull and creative person...but not so lucky!!!)
Hello, Ian.
Sorry that it took me so long to post a comment about metaphors, but the truth is that i felt so intimidated with all these psycological analyses written by my colleagues! i don´t think i´m up to the challenge! and now you are probably thinking: is sara just being ironic or is she methaforically speaking? in fact, it´s a bit of both. the freedom of speech alied to methafores, and spiced up with a little "naive" irony, are valuable tools in order to broaden our minds and improve our lives. society can be very cruel sometimes and the humankind has always looked for ways on how to state their opinions consciously and with freedom. that´s where metaphores come in: they really are a useful way for people to express themselves in the way they want and not shock others. by the time people realise what just happened, they won´t even know what hit them! isn´t it the beauty of life?
sara aguiar carvalho
After some research and thought on metaphors I curiously found out that this subject, besides being discussed by linguistics, has also been discussed by philosophy, anthropology, sociology, cognitive psychology, epistemology and the philosophy of science and even by literary theory. There are many opposing conceptions /theories on metaphors (e.g. Berger and Luckmann, 1966; Blummer, 1969; Hempel, 1965; Kant, 1963; Lévi-Strauss, 1963, Neisser 1967; Price 1950; Hempel). Andrew Ortony, in his article entitled “Metaphor Language and Thought” (1978), refers to these opposing conceptions as “constructivism” and “nonconstructivism”, fully recognizing that this terminology is far from ideal. The author considers that positions such as the nonconstructivist point of view, treats metaphors as rather unimportant, deviant, and parasitic on the “normal usage”. They (nonconstructivists) seem to consider that if metaphors need explaining at all, their explanations will be in terms of violation of linguistic rules. In this point of view metaphors characterize rhetoric, not scientific discourse, meaning they are vague, inessential embellishments appropriate for the purposes of politicians and poets, but not for those of scientists because the goal of science is to furnish an accurate description of physical reality. The constructivist approach seems to entail an important role in both language and thought, but it also seems to undermine the distinction between the metaphorical and literal. Because, for the constructivist, meaning has to be constructed rather than directly perceived, the meaning of non-literal uses of language does not represent a special problem.
In my opinion metaphors play an important role in language and thought. The use of language is an essentially creative activity, as is its comprehension. Metaphors and other figures of speech may sometimes require a little more creativity than literal language, but the difference is quantitative, not qualitative. I believe that metaphors afford different ways of perceiving the world. Furthermore, I think that metaphors may also result in a sort of cognitive myopia where in some aspects of a situation are unconsciously (or not) emphasized at the expense of another, possibly equally important aspects.
Identifying myself with the constructivist approach, I believe that the use of metaphor, as listening to music, helps us express feelings that can´t be conceptualized into words and thoughts that cannot remain in silence!
Délia Gama
Hi Ian.
I believe metaphor plays an important role in creative writing but also in communication. It goes beyond the obvious making reading interesting. A writer sees resemblances in things and he puts symbols between the heart of the book and the reader, which perception is not immediate, and therefore it still seduces you after you close the book. Suddenly, association or comparison make familiar objects or usual things became strange in a mysterious or magical way. In communication, metaphors are as well interesting, they leave more to imagination putting fresh energy and new meanings into words.
Lisa
Hello Ian.
It took me a while to write a comment about metaphors, because I had never thought about it. I use metaphors very often, but I do this subconsciously (like everyone) and I never tried to know more about this subject.
I believe that creativity and metaphors are intertwined, which could be the reason why it was so difficult to some of us (including me) to write a metaphor on our blog. We are not used to be creative. I'm not used to be creative. I studied sciences in high school and creativity was not stimulated. Teachers had to stick to the program and there wasn't time to experiment new things. Nowadays, there is no time to teach the whole program and, of course, no time to stimulate creativity.
I liked your post about time. It certainly is a powerful metaphor. For those who haven't read it, I strongly recommend "Momo" by Michael Ende. It is a story about Momo and her friends, but also a wonderful metaphor about our "hurried" society, where life seems to be ruled by time.
Marília Cunha
Post a Comment