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In:How Metaphors Guide, Teach and Popularize Science
Edited by Anke Beger and Thomas H. Smith
[Figurative Thought and Language 6] 2020
► pp. 297–318

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Conclusion

When metaphors serve scientific ends

 | Independent
 | Europa-Universität Flensburg
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Available under the Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial-NoDerivatives (CC BY-NC-ND) 4.0 license.

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Published online: 22 April 2020
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https://doi.org/10.1075/ftl.6.09smi
Abstract
This final chapter uses the metaphor characteristics set forth in the introductory chapter to comment on the individual studies reported here. Where the introductory chapter describes the principles of modern metaphor research that promise to improve access to science, this chapter highlights the actual application of these principles as found in the chapters of this book. When we focus on key requirements of scientific inquiry – description, explanation, and prediction – metaphor is found to be both very helpful and sometimes to pose difficulties. Such results are reviewed here, with discussions intended to benefit scientists, communicators, and metaphor scholars.
Article outline
  • 1.Scope of review
  • 2.Characteristics of scientific metaphors
    • 2.1Selection of metaphors to study: Intuitive versus systematic
    • 2.2Three purposes served by scientific metaphor: Simple description, understandable explanation and accurate prediction
      • 2.2.1Simple description
      • 2.2.2Explanatory models and metaphors
      • 2.2.3Predictive models and metaphors
    • 2.3Social models and metaphors: A level of scientific analysis where physically embodied metaphors may not work
    • 2.4Groupings of metaphors
    • 2.5Metaphors for argument and propaganda
    • 2.6Macro metaphors and argumentation
  • 3.Some conclusions
  • Notes
  • References
References (27)
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