Metaphors: a resource for inter-paradigmatic comprehension

Comprehension of Appropriateness (Part #5)

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Metaphors are a special form of presentation natural to many cultures (10). They are of unique importance as a means of communicating complex notions, especially in interdisciplinary and multicultural dialogue, as well as in the popularization of abstract concepts, in political discourse, and as part of any creative process. They offer the special advantage of calling upon a pre-existing capacity to comprehend complexity, rather than assuming that people need to engage in lengthy educational processes before being able to comprehend. Although frequently used in international debate through which strategies are defined, their strengths have not been deliberately explored to assist in the identification of more appropriate strategies and in the manner of their implementation. 

Each development policy may be considered a particular 'answer' to the global problematique. And yet no such answer appears to be free from fundamental weaknesses. A shift to an alternative policy becomes progressively more necessary as the effects of these weaknesses accumulate. However, since each such policy reflects a 'language' or mind-set whereby a worldview is organized, as indicated above, no adequate 'logical' framework can exist to facilitate comprehension of the nature of such a shift or of the process of transition between alternatives (11). But many familiar metaphors of alternation exist through which the characteristics and limitations of such a shift may be understood. 

This paper assumes that the challenge to comprehension is such that, just as in the case of fundamental physics, discussion of the subtle complexity of an appropriate new socio-economic mode, and its relationship to human understanding of it, can only proceed forward with the aid of devices such as metaphors which call upon other faculties of the human mind.