基本説明
Foreword by Stephen A. Bernhardt. Offers a sweeping history of rhetoric and metaphor in science, delving into questions about how language constitutes knowledge.
Full Description
Analyzing the power of metaphor in the rhetoric of science, this book examines the use of words to express complex scientific concepts.
Metaphor and Knowledge offers a sweeping history of rhetoric and metaphor in science, delving into questions about how language constitutes knowledge. Weaving together insights from a group of scientists at the Santa Fe Institute as they shape the new interdisciplinary field of complexity science, Ken Baake shows the difficulty of writing science when word meanings are unsettled, and he analyzes the power of metaphor in science.
Contents
FOREWORD
ACKNOWLEDGMENTS
1. INTRODUCTION: THE PROBLEM WITH "RULES" AND WHY WORDS WILL NOT SIT STILL
Harmonics: Using Music Theory to Explain How Metaphor Works in Science
Structure of the Book
What Is the Santa Fe Institute?
2. A TECHNICAL WRITER AT THE THINK TANK
Establishing Ethos With an "Initial Impressions" Report
A Technical Writer's Balancing Act: Capture the Excitement of Research, but Avoid Hype
Writing for the Institute's Bulletin: What Happens When Technical Writers Cannot Find Their Bearings Toward an Audience
3. METAPHOR: CONSTITUTING OR DECORATING THEORY IN SCIENCE
Rhetoric at the SFI: A Qualified Acceptance
The Meaning of Metaphor
Metaphors in Motion: How They Work
Metaphor and Science
Fear of Persuasion and Metaphoric Harmonics
Rhetorical Alternatives to Metaphor in Science
4. METAPHORS AND MATHEMATICS: A SHARED TRADITION OF CONSTITUTING KNOWLEDGE IN SCIENCE
The Metaphors of Information as the New Materiality
Representing Reality
Platonic Arguments for the Supremacy of Mathematics
Metaphor for Understanding a Non-Algorithmic World
Making Sloppy Ideas Rigorous
No Rational Method of Having Good Ideas
SFI Metaphors as Theory Constitutive or Literary? A Tale of Two Terms1
Metaphor Harmonics: Who Intends the Bee to Be Yellow?
Metaphor Harmonics: Emergence, the Brain, and Neural Networks
Equilibrium and the Prisoner's Dilemma
5. SCIENCE WRITERS LOOKING FOR THEIR AUDIENCE
Style and Eloquence in SFI Writing
A Matter of Invention: Writing for Scientists and the General Public
Incommensurability: Trying to Cross Disciplines
6. "COMPLEXITY": AN ETYMOLOGY LEADING TO A DISCUSSION OF WHETHER IT IS A METAPHOR OR SOMETHING ELSE
The Word "Complex" in the Oxford English Dictionary
"Complexity" Arrives in Santa Fe
The New "Complexity" Returns to Old Haunts
Is "Complexity" a Metaphor?
7. MANAGING METAPHOR HARMONICS AND OTHER CHALLENGES OF MAKING KNOWLEDGE IN SCIENCE
Speak Carefully and Carry a Paradigm Shift
WORKS CITED
INDEX
