On Oct 22, 2006, at 2:45 PM, Charles Brown wrote:
Anyway, metaphors have to do with the sameness of relationships, not the sameness of things.
Arithmetic deals with sameness of things. Algebra deals with sameness of relationships between things.
Actually, 1/2 = 2/4 is arithmetic. ( my bad)
Doyle;
Well I guess the simple way to say this would be how do you root that in how the mind works? In the above you make no reference to the brain out all.
The linguistic theory of metaphors as examples of one network mapped onto another network structure in the brain is a plausible way of describing the mental process. Like any materialist theory it's subject to disproval if the brain processes show something else. So there is no reason as far as I can understand this that the content of mapping process of the same things or the same relationships is not metaphorical in either case. The best reason for arguing this is to address the potential idealism that floats around about math is some extra material structure that people mine like lead.
Math is a picture of what we can think mentally. Prosaic yes, but not ideal. In any case the more closely the brain work is tied to reality the more we can build upon it because the mystifications are dispelled.
thanks,
Doyle
