Aphorism enthusiast and author James Geary waxes on a fascinating fixture of human language: the metaphor. Friend of scribes from Aristotle to Elvis, metaphor can subtly influence the decisions we make, Geary says.
Excerpts:
'Metaphorical thinking is essential to how we understand ourselves, and others, how we communicate, learn, discover and invent. But metaphor is a way of thought before it is a way with words...And mataphor gives us a much more vivd understanding...So, how do we make and understand metaphors?... The first step is pattern recognition...Metaphor is not just the detection of patterns; it is the creation of patterns.Second step, conceptual synesthesia... Metaphor creates a kind of conceptual synesthesia, in which we understand one concept in the context of another.Third step is cognitive dissonance..we can not ignore the literal meaning of words even when the literal meaning gives the wrong answer...we cannot ignore the metaphorical meaning of words either...Metaphor matters because it creates expectations...Metaphor also matters because it influences decisions by activating analogies...By bringing together what we knowand what we don't know through analogy,metaphorical thinking strikes the spark that ignites discovery. '
*I think I'd better get to scripting*
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