[FRIAM] A bold meteorological theory

[Prof David West]

I certainly do not disagree with your main point: metaphor is a tool. However, I might ask, if all your food is stored in metal cans, might a can opener, a mere tool, be an important, even essential, tool? I think that this is Quine's point re: the fringe of science.

davew


On Mon, Mar 16, 2026, at 6:57 PM, glen wrote:
> I suppose it depends on the structure of the space. If all roads lead 
> to Rome, then it doesn't matter. Any set of lies will do just fine. But 
> if it's pathological, then hopping roads is a necessary skill. I make 
> no claims to that metaphysical knowledge. I'm only pointing out that 
> metaphor is a neutral tool, not something to be ogled in awe. Metaphor 
> is no more nor less fascinating than, say, a spatula. If I had a friend 
> who constantly yapped about how cool their spatula was ... and every 
> conversation wound down to spatula this and spatula that, I'd have to 
> push back a bit and say that not everything's about your spatula. 
> Please talk about something else.
>
> Whether the spatula is used for ill or good depends on the wielder.
>
> On 3/16/26 12:16 PM, Marcus Daniels wrote:
>> Different canals could be in frustration, so I suppose it isn’t quite as bad as you say?
>> 
>> *From: *Friam <friam-bounces at redfish.com> on behalf of glen <gepropella at gmail.com>
>> *Date: *Monday, March 16, 2026 at 11:45 AM
>> *To: *friam at redfish.com <friam at redfish.com>
>> *Subject: *Re: [FRIAM] A bold meteorological theory
>> 
>> I don't see how that could be true. At best, metaphor is a means to keep one in a canal *and* a means of escaping a canal. And that it's both means neither usage is a property of metaphor. I think it's better to state that metaphor is a means of escaping *reality* ... to say things that are not true ... lying, falsehood.
>> 
>> Of course, some lies/falsehoods can be good. When a science popularizer lies about, say, entanglement in order to provide *some* type of intuition the laity demands ... maybe that's a good thing. The liar may justify their lies in claiming that lie set A is "better" than lie set B. (Or maybe it's a bad thing.) But metaphor is a liar's tool. Attempts to rehabilitate it are the essence of postmodernism (at least as *that* concept is bastardized by the laity).
>> 
>> Of course, those of us who are OK with being called a _liar_ have no problem with this. But there are those amongst us who blanch at being called a liar even as they lie, the epitome of Bad Faith, reflective or not.
>> 
>> On 3/16/26 11:04 AM, Prof David West wrote:
>>> Metaphorically stated, unfortunately: a metaphor is just a means for escaping local minima and channelization.
>>> 
>>> davew
>>> 
>>> 
>>> On Mon, Mar 16, 2026, at 8:55 AM, glen wrote:
>>>> That's some good advice, there. Narratives like the naked Emperor are
>>>> crucial tools for posers and con men. Each and every metaphor you
>>>> identify in a missive is evidence of the authors' (plural possessive -
>>>> no such thing as a sole author) Bad Faith. And the number of metaphors
>>>> is directly correlated with the extent of the Bad Faith.
>>>>
>>>> None of us are innocent. None of us are the child in the narrative.
>>>> It's a venomous fiction, injected by the fangs of the storyteller. Even
>>>> literal babies bring along their own "genetic memory", in utero
>>>> accretion, biases, and expertise. The story, that story and all others,
>>>> is there to persuade, to trick you, to canalize you into thinking in
>>>> some particular set of ways.
>>>>
>>>> Now I'd like you to stop thinking about elephants.
>>>>
>>>> On 3/15/26 10:17 AM, Nicholas Thompson wrote:
>>>>> Perhaps I should just drop the metaphor and speak to the beliefs the metaphor represents to me. Expertise both sights and blinds us; great expertise sights and blinds us greatly.
>>>> -- 
> -- 
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