p.s. Have a wonderful trip and a pleasant summer in New Braintree+ --- Frank C. Wimberly 140 Calle Ojo Feliz, Santa Fe, NM 87505
505 670-9918 Santa Fe, NM On Mon, May 10, 2021, 12:13 PM Frank Wimberly <[email protected]> wrote: > 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 <[email protected]> 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 >> >> [email protected] >> >> https://wordpress.clarku.edu/nthompson/ >> >> >> - .... . -..-. . -. -.. -..-. .. ... -..-. .... . .-. . >> FRIAM Applied Complexity Group listserv >> Zoom Fridays 9:30a-12p Mtn GMT-6 bit.ly/virtualfriam >> un/subscribe http://redfish.com/mailman/listinfo/friam_redfish.com >> FRIAM-COMIC http://friam-comic.blogspot.com/ >> archives: http://friam.471366.n2.nabble.com/ >> >
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