[FRIAM] The "Metaphor" Sting: The scorpion speaks

[Frank Wimberly]

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."



---
Frank C. Wimberly
140 Calle Ojo Feliz,
Santa Fe, NM 87505

505 670-9918
Santa Fe, NM

On Mon, May 10, 2021, 11:29 AM <thompnickson2 at gmail.com> 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
>
> ThompNickSon2 at gmail.com
>
> https://wordpress.clarku.edu/nthompson/
>
>
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