Metaphor: A figure of speech in which a word or phrase literally denoting one kind of object or idea is used in place of another to suggest a likeness or analogy between them (as in the ship plows the sea).
Webster's New Collegiate Dictionary
This chapter examines the first of six Aids to Learning - the seemingly humble metaphor - in dealing with nonlinear environments. The metaphor is akin to the mechanism of tagging in complex adaptive systems as described in Chapter 1. These systems sense their environments and collect information about surrounding conditions by using tags to guide their actions. The systems may also encode data about new situations for use at a later date. We often think that information is a human-derived product of the interaction of animate Man and inanimate Nature. Nothing could be farther from the truth. Information processing is almost universal. For a branch of a bifurcation to survive, its tags must survive a "fitness" test. Essentially, metaphors do the same thing for us, and are essentially tags. All metaphors are not created equal. Clich,s, for example, won't stand the test. The 19th century understood this better than we do today. Students studied Rhetoric, which rigorously covered the "science" of metaphor-making. We have, in our own century, taken a step backward.
Alan D. Beyerchen sets forth a spirited defense of the linguistic metaphor, which is, in actuality, a form of low-level model. (1)
- There seems to be serious metaphorical value in the images and ideas emanating from the new sciences....Murray Gell-Mann, James Rosenau and others caution wisely against expecting too much, too soon from the new sciences and stress the informed use of metaphor for now. I could not agree more. But if this sentiment implies that metaphors are merely poor substitutes for adequate models, then I could not disagree more. Metaphors are extremely powerful in their own right and should not be treated simply as tokens along a tollway towards models.
- What is a metaphor? Is it only a stylistic flourish, as most of us think who encountered metaphors primarily in literature classes in school? No. Metaphor is much more significant, as philosophers and linguists are beginning to demonstrate more and more convincingly.
- A metaphor is usually a statement that is paradoxical. It is literally false according to the rules of abstract rationality (i.e., logic, truth tables), but is true according to the rules of imaginative rationality (i.e., art). Metaphor constitutes a ubiquitous, irreducibly complex aspect of any natural language. It is an essential "AS" gate in our cognitive processing. It is a crucial way that we understand one thing as another.
- Metaphors are embedded throughout our speech patterns (including the word "embedded" here). They are jarring when new, but often we use "dead" metaphors or clich‚s such as the wings of a building, the branches of science, weighing our options, or sitting at the foot of a mountain. Each such "gate" is much more than a word. Contemporary researchers tell us that metaphors are indicators of networks of meanings and entailments that dilate or constrain both our perceptions and our conceptions.(i) It is furthermore possible to extend this understanding to visual and other metaphors such as the Mandelbrot set that enlivens our program covers at this conference.
- The importance of metaphor has long been understood. Aristotle wrote, "The greatest thing, by far, is to be a master of metaphor. It is the one thing that cannot be learned; and it is also the sign of genius." He contended that it is so indicative of power that it is not appropriate for slaves to use it.
Beyerchen, a Clausewitz scholar, goes on to say that the great thinker was contemptuous of metaphors. "Critical studies, he [Clausewitz] says, are imperiled by narrow systems used as formal bodies of law and 'a far more serious menace,' the 'retinue of jargon, technicalities, and metaphors that attends these systems. They swarm everywhere-a lawless rabble of camp followers.'" (iii) And yet he was a master of the metaphor:
- To condemn metaphors in such a colorfully metaphorical way implies that Clausewitz thought. ...in profoundly metaphorical terms. Think merely of his "friction," or "fog" of war, or "center of gravity." Recall how a defeat "leaves a vacuum that is filled by a corrosively expanding fear which completes the paralysis. It is as if the electric charge of the main battle had sparked a shock to the whole nervous system of one of the contestants." Or how routine is a clock "pendulum" that reduces natural friction and "regulates" the mechanism of war. Or how war has its own "grammar," but not its own logic. Or that politics is "the womb in which war develops-where its outlines already exist in their hidden rudimentary form, like the characteristics of living creatures in their embryos." (iv)
- Why did Clausewitz resort to this "lawless rabble of camp followers" in his own language? One reason is that he wanted to draw upon history to generate theory. In historical studies a major goal is frequently to understand one thing (the present or a vision of the future) in terms of another (the past). Metaphor is very robust for this purpose. Consider the staying power of the metaphor of the Munich agreement in American foreign policy since World War II. To claim some action is necessary to avoid a "Munich" is to offer a justification of enormous magnitude; to claim some other course will lead to a Munich is to denounce its proponents in the most damning terms as appeasers. Metaphors appeal to imaginative rationality and often evoke indelible images....
- Yet another reason Clausewitz relied upon metaphor was that he did not trust the established jargon of his day, which was full of rigid (and French!) geometric principles and models. [Think of Jomini.] He preferred the new sciences of his time-chemistry, thermodynamics, magnetism, electricity, embryology. These offered novel, high-tech, research-forefront terms for the dynamic phenomena he wanted to discuss....
- Clausewitz appears to have understood that metaphors can be superior to analytical [or overt] models when the phenomena of interest cannot be controlled, or you are unsure of the necessary assumptions. As evolving things, metaphors are open to novelty, surprise, innovation and even mutation. They therefore can capture the underlying processes of other evolving entities surprisingly well. If the metaphors are really successful, of course, they may become mere common place, frozen images that get passed along unthinkingly and thus constrain our imaginations. But this is also part of the way evolution works. Metaphoring (as opposed to traditional modeling) is a process of exploring some interesting possibility space with contingency and feedback. Each biological mutation is such an exploration, as is each historical event. This is a crucial aspect of Clausewitz's method of analysis and his approach to war.
Those who still find the linguistic metaphor to be wanting can find a little solace in the alternative of mathematics. Mathematics at its heart is also metaphorical, but somewhat more capable of precision.
- The higher levels of the reductionist story use mathematics as a metaphor, not as a precise representation of nature...Even though mathematical models do not correspond to the whole of reality-indeed, because they do not correspond to the whole of reality-they offer definite advantages. Because mathematics is more precise than words, it can handle more delicate distinctions....(2)
But what is inadequate about the metaphors we use now, and what would better ones be like? Andrew Ilichinski of the Center for Naval Analysis has produced a report on land warfare and complexity, (3) which contains this excellent table of metaphors. Those on the lefthand column are linear. Those on the right, their nonlinear equivalents.
Ilichinski also provides an insightful comparison between some of the principles underlying the formation of linear and nonlinear metaphors (see graphic below).
The metaphor is a primary weapon, together with Van Creveld's Rules, in the arsenal of nonlinearity. At this stage in the development of nonlinear reductionism, these two are the more advanced Aids to Learning that the nonlinearist has available to work with. Both are potent.
| Coping with the Bounds Index | Foreword | Acknowledgments | Introduction | Part One Introduction | Chapter 1 | Chapter 2 | Chapter 3 | Chapter 4 | Part Two Introduction | Chapter 5 | Chapter 6 | Chapter 7 | Chapter 8 | Chapter 9 | Chapter 10 | Conclusion | Appendix 1 | Appendix 2 | Appendix 3 | Appendix 4 | Appendix 5 | Appendix 6 | Notes |