Chemistry Reference
In-Depth Information
materials, and collected data. There is always a gap of some unknown size, a space
between the general conditions for the application of existing models and the actual
conditions, between the generalities of theories and best practices, and the particulars
of the experiment at hand in the present moment.
The space of metaphor, the space between the familiar and the unfamiliar, is
filled with the “light, bright ether” that Cassirer speaks of (see previous section).
It is the same space indicated by Kuhn
s questions, “How does mathematics attach
to the world?”, “How do our concepts attach to the world?” and, “How does
language attach to things?” Though devils lay in wait in the particular details, at
root the answer is the same: the attachment between math and world, language and
thing, and IUPAC definitions 2 and 1, is metaphorical. But what does
that
mean?
Cassirer
'
s idea of
radical metaphor
captures this question in its primal instance, i.e.,
the first utterance of a word
:
'
Indeed, even the most primitive verbal utterance requires the transmutation of a certain
cognitive or emotive experience into sound, i.e., into a medium that is foreign to the
experience, and even quite disparate; even as the simplest mythical form can arise only
by virtue of a transformation which removes a certain impression from the realm of the
ordinary, the everyday and profane, and lifts it to the level of the “holy,” the sphere of
mythico-religious “significance.” This involves not merely a transference, but a real
μʵ˄ʱʲʱ˃ʹ˃ ʵʹ˃ ʱʻʻ
ο
ʳʵʽ
ο
˃
; in fact, it is not only a transition to another category, but
actually the creation of the category itself. (Cassirer 1923/
1953
, 87-8)
Cassirer
s reconfigures the discussion of metaphor in this passage. His thoughts
about the creativity of what he calls “genuine
radical
metaphor” closely resemble
what Whitehead, Kuhn, Harre and Hesse have noted as the creative function,
specifically the
knowledge creation
function of metaphor. This conception goes
beyond the standard ways of mapping the terms, or concepts, of an analogy or
analyzing a metaphor
'
s transference of properties between categories.
22
Interesting,
fruitful and popular as semantic- and logic-mapping exercises are, we have some-
thing new here. Cassirer draws attention to radical metaphor
'
s
creation
of new
'
categories.
In seeking radical metaphor in the human urge toward symbolic expression,
Cassirer found the unbridgeable space between experience and language. This gap
is the source and scene of radical metaphor. In this “empty” space, to which neither
language nor thought can lay claim, is the
originary
experience that Whitehead was
so interested in. The creativity that an individual is capable of, the true novelty of
the as-yet-unspoken, lurks in the “wilds of so-called
” (Whitehead
1929, 199). By “empty” Whitehead meant space that is empty of the ordering
activity of (human and non-human) agents; this “interstitial” space is where he
locates consciousness. While consciousness relies on (more or less) stable chemical
cycles they do not merely replicate patterns but take advantage of the order and
energy they generate and maintain. This is where Whitehead sought the ultimate
potential for spontaneity (Whitehead 1929, 105-6).
empty space
'
'
22
As found for example in Lakoff and Johnson (
2008
).
