Configurations of metaphors

Developing a Metaphorical Language for the Future (Part #9)

---

[Parts: First | Prev | Next | Last | All] [Links: To-K | From-K | From-Kx | Refs ]

---

It is extraordinary the extent to which collaboration between groups and sectors is inhibited by entrapment in seemingly isolated metaphors. One example is the antagonism between the academic, so-called "language of the head" and the "language of the heart" of many alternative communities. This battle between the "heartless heads" and the "headless hearts" has lost sight of the metaphoric underpinnings that establish a context in which both head and heart are vital organs -- but are themselves insufficient for system functionality.

Attention should be given to the ways in which metaphors can be used as weapons to entrap and isolate -- and even kill (51). The dubious literature on spells and spell-binding might even prove suggestive in understanding how the magic of public relations can sustain the illusion that a programme of exploitation is really development. Most sterile debates make full use of metaphors to trap the adversary in a polarized position from which he or she can be subdued with metaphoric weapons derived from the opposite pole.

With the resounding failure of isolated economic models, what appears to be lacking is any ability to work with a configuration of complementary frameworks. As the example of the future suggests, there is much to be gained by working with a configuration of metaphors to capture different facets of a situation that cannot be effectively encompassed by a single metaphor, as with "waves" and "particles" in light physics. In this sense all metaphors must be considered suspect, and like certain medicines, only to be used with others selected to protect against their side-effects.

Buddhist scholars have done much to explore the relations between the senses, especially as metaphoric carriers of other levels of insight calling for an appropriate balance between different forms of information (52). They would approve the emphasis of Slaughter's approach to foresight as involving "a conscious effort to expand awareness (and understanding) to clarify the dynamics of emerging situations" (18), whilst wondering at the restriction to foresight. The Sanskrit classic, the Rg Veda, has been studied by Antonio de Nicolas (53) in terms of the four complementary conceptual languages it uses to encompass the developmental complexity with which it deals. This work has been related to theories of classification using non-Boolean lattices of complementary languages (54).