Re:Metaphors in Man Pages
by jrochkind1 on Friday May 08, 2020 @06:14PM
(#23120142)
Right, this is how natural language (at least English certainly can't speak for others) works for all fields of discourse.
So it can be interesting to see which metaphors we use. Do they say something about how we think about things? Do the metaphors we use effect what ideas we come up with? Would switching the metaphors up give us different ideas? Probably. Are the metaphors the same for all fields of discourse? Probably not, but only one way to find out. What does that tell us?
I think it's interesting. I think lots of metaphors become so 'trite' that we forget they are metaphors at all, but they are probably still having influence on how we conceptualize things.
(The 'processes [or other subsystems] as people' metaphor is one I (and I'm sure others) use intentionally and find useful; I think this is one of the more intentional ones; it's not meant to be bad to use metaphors; but the map still isn't the territory).
So it can be interesting to see which metaphors we use. Do they say something about how we think about things? Do the metaphors we use effect what ideas we come up with? Would switching the metaphors up give us different ideas? Probably. Are the metaphors the same for all fields of discourse? Probably not, but only one way to find out. What does that tell us?
I think it's interesting. I think lots of metaphors become so 'trite' that we forget they are metaphors at all, but they are probably still having influence on how we conceptualize things.
(The 'processes [or other subsystems] as people' metaphor is one I (and I'm sure others) use intentionally and find useful; I think this is one of the more intentional ones; it's not meant to be bad to use metaphors; but the map still isn't the territory).