<!DOCTYPE html><html><head><title></title></head><body><div style="font-family:Arial;"> 1 - I plead guilty to misusing "metaphor." Only, however, to the extent that I conflate multiple similar terms, e.g., simile and analogy, under a single umbrella, "metaphor." Also, because, even when used precisely, a metaphor can be different 'things' at different times\u2014i.e., it has a lifecycle\u2014including epiphor, diaphor, failed metaphor, lexical term, and my own neologism, "paraphor."</div><div style="font-family:Arial;"><br></div><div style="font-family:Arial;"> 2 - Metaphor is, and should be used as such, just as precise a term as any other word; including the ones you listed and catachresis. There is a thread within linguistics study dedicated to metaphor.</div><div style="font-family:Arial;"><br></div><div style="font-family:Arial;"> 3 - As for, 'everything a metaphor'. Every noun (likely any word) in a language might be construed as metaphor, e.g., "dog" <b><i><u>is</u></i></b> "this complex, amalgamated, integrated, bundle of sensor (e.g., nerve ending) blips." </div><div style="font-family:Arial;"><br></div><div style="font-family:Arial;"> 4 - with regards responsibility: the damage done by unrecognized, unacknowledged metaphors like, "brain is computer," and, "executing software is cognition," are extraordinarily harmful but no one is held to account for asserting them.</div><div style="font-family:Arial;"><br></div><div style="font-family:Arial;">davew</div><div style="font-family:Arial;"><br></div><div style="font-family:Arial;"><br></div><div style="font-family:Arial;">On Tue, Mar 17, 2026, at 6:17 PM, glen wrote:</div><div style="font-family:Arial;">> Were you to write something like: "... scientists, when they use such </div><div style="font-family:Arial;">> rich catachreses as 'entanglement', fail to take responsibility for </div><div style="font-family:Arial;">> consequences of such use", I would not object. That word, unlike </div><div style="font-family:Arial;">> metaphor, has a fairly concrete meaning, something like "fills lexical </div><div style="font-family:Arial;">> gaps in scientific terminology, providing names and concepts where none </div><div style="font-family:Arial;">> previously existed".</div><div style="font-family:Arial;">></div><div style="font-family:Arial;">> Or, were you to write something like: "... scientists, when they use </div><div style="font-family:Arial;">> such rich didactic metaphors as 'entanglement', fail to take </div><div style="font-family:Arial;">> responsibility for consequences of such use", that would be OK too. The </div><div style="font-family:Arial;">> 'didactic' qualifier helps the reader *understand* whatever the hell </div><div style="font-family:Arial;">> you might mean.</div><div style="font-family:Arial;">></div><div style="font-family:Arial;">> I don't actually care that much what the first person who used a word </div><div style="font-family:Arial;">> meant by that word. Etymology and usage history are interesting and can </div><div style="font-family:Arial;">> sometimes hint at the word's normative meaning. But what matters much </div><div style="font-family:Arial;">> much more is what the current author(s) mean when they use the word.</div><div style="font-family:Arial;">></div><div style="font-family:Arial;">> And, again, if everything's a metaphor, then the word 'metaphor' is </div><div style="font-family:Arial;">> useless... like saying everything is a thing. It feels like the Bad </div><div style="font-family:Arial;">> kind of "sophistry" to use a phrase like "the metaphor (metaphor)". It </div><div style="font-family:Arial;">> not only wastes everyone's time; it also gives me The Ick: </div><div style="font-family:Arial;">> <a href="https://www.urbandictionary.com/define.php?term=the%20ick">https://www.urbandictionary.com/define.php?term=the%20ick</a> It's </div><div style="font-family:Arial;">> difficult to steel man something when that thing grosses you out.</div><div style="font-family:Arial;">></div><div style="font-family:Arial;">></div><div style="font-family:Arial;">> On 3/17/26 12:31 PM, Nicholas Thompson wrote:</div><div style="font-family:Arial;">>> Cmon, Glen, where is the Steelman of Yore?</div><div style="font-family:Arial;">>> </div><div style="font-family:Arial;">>> To apply the metaphor (metaphor) to every utterance is no more "corrupt" than to mathematize every proposition. It becomes corrupt only when it is not pursued honesty. "Entanglement" is a metaphor. It directs the mind. "Natural selection" is a metaphor. It also directs the mind.</div><div style="font-family:Arial;">>> </div><div style="font-family:Arial;">>> My worry is that scientists, when they use such rich metaphors as entanglement fail to take responsibility for the consequences of such use. Let's assume that the person who first used the metaphor, entanglement, meant something by it. We can formalize the analysis of metaphors just as we can mathematicize any proposition. And in that formalization, we can sort out the direction, and misdirection in the metaphor. What did they intend when they used the metaphor entanglement? What did they NOT intend? And when the disclaimers have been completed, is there anything left of the metaphor. If not, then, perhaps,*/scientists should stop using the metaphor/*. In the same way that we have stopped calling porpoises "fish".</div><div style="font-family:Arial;">>> </div><div style="font-family:Arial;">>> I don't know enough to even speculate what role "entanglement" as a metaphor has played in the development of quantum physics. But I claim to know enough about human behavior to assert that it has played some role, and that physicists run some risks if they altogether disclaim it.</div><div style="font-family:Arial;">>> </div><div style="font-family:Arial;">>> What might we gain, SteelMan, from exploring human thought as movement from metaphor to metaphor, each new experience being understood as a version of some previous one? My love is like a red,red rose, delicate, delighting, fragrant. But OH! the thorns. Did I mean the thorns. Was there ever a rose that did not have thorns? Metaphors are like that.</div><div style="font-family:Arial;">>> </div><div style="font-family:Arial;">>> When you say that we metaphorists are liars, what are the experiences of being lied to that you bring to bear. When we analyze metaphors (I assert), it's always best to be as particular as possible. Describe to me a particular jarring instance of being lied to. Now project that experience onto the experience of being metaphored to. What are the surplus meanings of applying the metaphor; which of those surplus meanings are disclaimed; once these disclaimers have been noted, does the metaphor retain any heuristic value.</div><div style="font-family:Arial;">>> </div><div style="font-family:Arial;">>> I have to say, I don't like being called a liar. But -- as the saying goes -- "if the foo shits", I guess I have to wear it. So, what experience do you imagine when you imagine being lied to? What aspects of that experience do you intend when you call metaphorists liars? What aspect do you disclaim? What is the heuristic value of the metaphor, once the disclaimers have been made.</div><div style="font-family:Arial;">>> </div><div style="font-family:Arial;">>> By the way, just as an interpersonal matter, if you call me a sinner, it doesn't help that you immediately call yourself a sinner. Any contempt you feel for yourself, does nothing to salve the contempt you feel for me. In fact it makes it worse. I have to bear the contempt of an admitted /sinner!/</div><div style="font-family:Arial;">>> </div><div style="font-family:Arial;">>> But I love you anyway. I wouldn't engage you if I didnt.</div><div style="font-family:Arial;">>> </div><div style="font-family:Arial;">>> Nick</div><div style="font-family:Arial;">></div><div style="font-family:Arial;">></div><div style="font-family:Arial;">> -- </div><div style="font-family:Arial;">> ¡s\u0131\u0279\u018e \u05df\u0131\u0250H \u22a5 \u0250\u05df\u05df\u01dddo\u0279 \u01dd u\u01dd\u05df\u0183</div><div style="font-family:Arial;">> \u1f45\u03c4\u03b5 oi \u03bc\u1f72\u03bd \u1f04\u03bb\u03bb\u03bf\u03b9 \u03ba\u03cd\u03bd\u03b5\u03c2 \u03c4\u03bf\u1f7a\u03c2 \u1f10\u03c7\u03d1\u03c1\u03bf\u1f7a\u03c2 \u03b4\u03ac\u03ba\u03bd\u03bf\u03c5\u03c3\u03b9\u03bd, \u1f10\u03b3\u1f70 \u03b4\u1f72 \u03c4\u03bf\u1f7a\u03c2 \u03c6\u03af\u03bb\u03bf\u03c5\u03c2, \u1f35\u03bd\u03b1 \u03c3\u03ce\u03c3\u03c9.</div><div style="font-family:Arial;">></div><div style="font-family:Arial;">></div><div style="font-family:Arial;">></div><div style="font-family:Arial;">> .- .-.. .-.. / ..-. --- --- - . .-. ... / .- .-. . / .-- .-. --- -. --. </div><div style="font-family:Arial;">> / ... --- -- . / .- .-. . / ..- ... . ..-. ..- .-..</div><div style="font-family:Arial;">> FRIAM Applied Complexity Group listserv</div><div style="font-family:Arial;">> Fridays 9a-12p Friday St. Johns Cafe / Thursdays 9a-12p Zoom </div><div style="font-family:Arial;">> <a href="https://bit.ly/virtualfriam">https://bit.ly/virtualfriam</a></div><div style="font-family:Arial;">> to (un)subscribe <a href="http://redfish.com/mailman/listinfo/friam_redfish.com">http://redfish.com/mailman/listinfo/friam_redfish.com</a></div><div style="font-family:Arial;">> FRIAM-COMIC <a href="http://friam-comic.blogspot.com">http://friam-comic.blogspot.com</a>/</div><div style="font-family:Arial;">> archives: 5/2017 thru present </div><div style="font-family:Arial;">> <a href="https://redfish.com/pipermail/friam_redfish.com/">https://redfish.com/pipermail/friam_redfish.com/</a></div><div style="font-family:Arial;">> 1/2003 thru 6/2021 <a href="http://friam.383.s1.nabble.com">http://friam.383.s1.nabble.com</a>/</div></body></html>