Message-Id: <v03102801b12f478e9ddd@[194.109.13.153]>
In-Reply-To: <363BE2462B2@zondisk.sepa.tudelft.nl>
Date: Fri, 13 Mar 1998 21:34:17 +0100
To: memetics@mmu.ac.uk
From: Ton Maas <tonmaas@xs4all.nl>
Subject: Re: references to analogy
>Dear memeticists,
>
>I am looking for references of important people stating that thinking
>by analogy of metaphor is a good way of thought, science,
>introduction of conceptual innovation and so on.
>
>I think aristotle, some systems science people and so on have stated
>such things.
Yeah, especially the Batesons. It's a key notion in father Gregory's work
and central to daughter Mary Catherine's first publication "Our Own
Metaphor" (reissued a few years back). According to Gregory metaphor is a
wonderful means to arrive at potentially new insights. His criticism is
that as a culture we tend to do quite well on the "imaginative" side of
innovation, but not so good on the "rigorous" side of things. You must be
able to "loosen up" during the first stage of finding the appropriate
metaphor, but you have to be *very* strict when it is applied in the new
field.
Ton Maas
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