On Oct 20, 2006, at 9:30 AM, Charles Brown wrote:
...Whoever 'first' spoke of
mammals had noticed that rabbits are foxes and chipmunks are
elephants and
they are all hyenas (at least from one aspect -- and that is all a
metaphor
ever does, it asserts that A is B _in respect to Q_).
Carrol
^^^^^
CB: Or a is to b as x is to y: a:b::x:y
Algebra is metaphoric; metaphors are algebraic : 1/2 = 2/4
I'm inclined to see algebra as the opposite of metaphor. 1/2 and 2/4
are exactly the same quantity, just as the equals sign states.
Nothing metaphorical about it, to my mind. Pythagoras and Euclid
sought exactitude and sameness. Aristotle, too, as in his Dictum de
Nullo et Omni ("Whatever is is. Whatever is not is not.") It was
Plato who gave merit to the shadows on the wall of the cave, who used
the appearance of something "other" to glean a truth or new idea.
Of course it depends on what your definition of "is" is.
Dan Scanlan
