FWIW
In my parlance (I think well informed by formal usage), A /conceptual
metaphor/ has a /source/ and a /target/ domain. The /target/ domain is
the domain one is trying to understand/explain by comparison to the
/source/ domain. The /source/ domain is considered the/image donor/. We
use the familiar /source/ to help us reason about the more abstract or
unfamiliar /target/.
In the example at hand, Glen invoked "an Onion" as the /source/ domain
in a metaphor to try to understand the more general and abstract target
domain of /layer/. Other /source/ domains (deposition layers, skin,
geology) were offered as well to offer conceptual parallax on this.
I'm not sure if this is a rabbit hole we fell down when we began to try
to sort levels from layers. I think the distinction is critical to the
discussion (which is now nearly lost in this forest of trees of levels
and layers?) but is not the discussion itself. We digress within our
digressions.
Jenny and Dave and I are discussing amongst ourselves a live in-person
"salon" of sorts to be held at Jenny's (in Santa Fe) on the the general
topic of Models, Metaphors, and Analogy. Jenny and I have elected
Dave to try to lead this, Jenny is providing chairs and shade. I'm
pulsing the locals for interest in participating... I'm only sorry Nick
and Roger and Glen are so far away right now. Got any (other) locals
interested in chatting face to face on these topics? Wimberly?
Guerin? I'm feeling the same juice as some our impromptu meetups
BEFORE FriAM became a formal deal! We could sure use Mike Agar about now!
Do any of you old men (or women) of this august body have a copy of
Wheelwright's 1962 "Metaphor and Reality" you are ready to give up? I'm
missing my copy... not sure where it got off to! Did I maybe miss
finding one in your stash when you left SFe, REC?
- Steve
On 6/12/17 9:36 AM, ┣glen┫ wrote:
Thanks for asking.
Well, I still don't know what y'all mean when you say "metaphor" because the meaning seems to vary.
E.g. you say "a metaphor like 'layer'", indicating that 'layer' is the metaphor. Yet you also say
things like "onion metaphor", indicating that onions are the metaphor. But, as I tried to say
earlier, I don't regard onions as a metaphor. They are simply a thing we can analyze using _either_ the
concept of levels (strict ordering) or the concept of layers (more flexible organization). So, the concept
of metaphors isn't useful to me, there.
However, I do think a metaphor consists of 2 analogs (real things like rocks or onions) and the
analogy between them. So, I can see "metaphor" meaning a) just 2 analogs, b) just the
relation/analogy, without the analogs, or with implicit/schematic analogs, or c) all 3: 2 analogs
plus their relation(s). So, if that's what you're asking for, I do like "exhibiting
particulate deposition" as the relationship/analogy. For the 2 analogs, we can choose, as I
said: 1) coral deposition and, say, diffusion limited aggregation.
So, the metaphor would be DLA ⇔ coral. And that analogy should help identify why "layer"
is a more general analysis concept than "levels".
On 06/12/2017 08:23 AM, Nick Thompson wrote:
Explicating a metaphor like "layer" is for me a serious and important art. It starts, I think, by
the metaphor maker identifying his absolute favorite example of a layer situation. The situation that
unequivocably instantiates "layers". The next step will be to identify in the plainest way
possible the crucial features of this example ... what makes it such a good example of "layers".
Then, and only then does it make sense to apply the metaphor to the situation we are trying to elucidate with
it.
It seems to me that the onion metaphor is not perhaps what everybody has in
mind, because the layers of an onion are more or less independent of one
another. But I shouldn’t try to speak for you.
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