Marcacci-Rossi, Reasoning, Metaphor and Science Vol.9 2017
Total Page:16
File Type:pdf, Size:1020Kb
Isonomia – Epistemologica Volume 9 REASONING, METAPHOR AND SCIENCE Volume 1 Il realismo scientifico di Evandro Agazzi Mario Alai (ed.) Volume 2 Complessità e riduzionismo Vincenzo Fano, Enrico Giannetto, Giulia Giannini, Pierluigi Graziani (eds.) Volume 3 Oltre la fisica normale Isabella Tassani (ed.) Volume 4 Mettere a fuoco il mondo Elena Casetta, Valeria Giardino (eds.) Volume 5 Metaphor and Argumentation Francesca Ervas, Massimo Sangoi (eds.) Volume 6 Forecasting the Future Stefano Bordoni, Sara Matera (eds.) Volume 7 Teaching and Learning Mathematics Laura Branchetti (ed.) Volume 8 Animali razionali Pierluigi Graziani, Giorgio Grimaldi, Massimo Sangoi (eds.) Volume 9 Reasoning, Metaphor and Science Flavia Marcacci, Maria Grazia Rossi (eds.) ISONOMIA - Epistemologica Series Editor Gino Tarozzi [email protected] REASONING, METAPHOR AND SCIENCE Edited by Flavia Marcacci Maria Grazia Rossi © ISONOMIA – Epistemologica All rights reserved. ISSN 2037-4348 Scientific Director: Gino Tarozzi Managing Director: Pierluigi Graziani Department of Foundation of Sciences P.za della Repubblica, 13 – 61029 Urbino (PU) http://isonomia.uniurb.it/ Design by [email protected] All rights reserved. No part of this publication may be reproduced, stored in a retrieval system or transmitted in any form, or by any means, electronic, mechanical, photocopying, recording or otherwise without prior permission, in writing, from the publisher. In copertina: Gianni Pilera, I ceppi solitari Table of contents 2 FLAVIA MARCACCI AND MARIA GRAZIA ROSSI Reasoning by Metaphors in Science, Philosophy and Practice ................................ 7 Part 1: The Nature of Metaphors and Their Role in Human Rationality STEFANIA GIOMBINI Μεταφορά. The Figure of Speech before Aristotle ................................................. 25 FRANCESCA ERVAS AND ELISABETTA GOLA From a Ghost to a Sketch: Translating Metaphors in Context ............................... 41 BIPIN INDURKHYA Thought Experiments, Models, and the Heuristic Power of Metaphors in Science ......................................................... 61 FRANCESCA TRAMONTANO AND DAMIANO BONDI The Poietic Power of Metaphors ............................................................................ 87 ANTONIO ALLEGRA Science and Illusion. Metaphors and Visions of the Posthuman .......................... 101 Part 2: The Heuristic Use of the Metaphors in Science FLAVIA MARCACCI AND VALENTINA ZAFFINO The Infinite Cosmos, Similitudo or Data? Giordano Bruno and the Astronomers of XVI-XVII Century ................................ 119 RAFFAELE PISANO AND PAOLO BUSSOTTI The Fiction of the Infinitesimals in Newton’s Works. On the Metaphoric use of Infinitesimals in Newton .............................................. 141 SABRINA MORETTI The Use of Metaphors and Analogical Representations in Social Simulation Models ................................................................................. 161 MARCO GIUNTI What is a Physical Realization of a Computational System? ............................... 177 MIRKO DI BERNARDO Metaphorical Models of The Living and The Theory of Biological Self-organization ..................................................... 193 Reasoning by Metaphors in Science, Philosophy and Practice Flavia Marcacci Pontifical Lateran University [email protected] Maria Grazia Rossi Nova University of Lisbon [email protected] 1. Stars embedded in the sky like nails: when nature becomes more understandable1 Stars are embedded in the sky like nails, the wind is as fast as birds, the cosmos revolves as a mill wheel and the sun spins as a felt cap around our head: during the VI-V centuries b.C., when the nature’s exploration began and a rational image of the world was developing, Anaximenes of Miletus already resorted to using something like metaphors and similarities. A subtle sensation of nearness of heaven to men, or the strong faith in human rationality, must have convinced the Ionian thinker to describe the nature of the farthest sky as comprehensible as things on the Earth (the stars are implanted in the sky like nails. Diels & Kranz 1951: 93, testimonial 13A14), to explain what is invisible in itself but understandable by means of the same mechanisms of the terrestrial facts (the wind is as fast as are the birds. Diels & Kranz 1951: 94, testimonial 13A19), to show that unreachable things act as man-made things (the cosmos revolves like a mill wheel and 1 This work is the outcome of a collaborative effort. However, Flavia Marcacci is responsible for the section 1 and 2, Maria Grazia Rossi is responsible for the section 3. Section 4 is the result of the joint effort of both authors. Flavia Marcacci and Maria Grazia Rossi, “Reasoning by Metaphors in Science, Philosophy and Practice” in Flavia Marcacci and Maria Grazia Rossi, Reasoning, metaphor and science, pp. 7-22. © 2017 Isonomia, On-line Journal of Philosophy—Epistemologica—ISSN 2037-4348 University of Urbino Carlo Bo http://isonomia.uniurb.it/epistemologica 8 Reasoning, Metaphor and Science the sun spins like a cap. Diels & Kranz 1951: 93 and 92, respectively testimonials 13A12 and 13A7). An extended and functioning technical dictionary describing nature did not exist at that time. Philosophical and specialized terms and concepts were starting out and common language was the most available source for describing and approaching reality through human words. Anaximenes could not be conscious to use metaphors, as we consider Isocrates to be really the first author to term them this way (see Giombini in this book). However, he actually employed metaphors in his natural philosophy. Melissus created the first dictionary for the ontology, as his fragments display (Diels & Kranz 1951: 259-275), and he replaced natural metaphors with more detailed and rational descriptions. Nature is an exceptional stage to witness the most important chances for an encounter between science and metaphor. The desire to understand nature has always been the reason to venture metaphorical images for grasping something that is otherwise incomprehensible at first sight. The idea of nature itself has been woven into a rich metaphorology. A place of honour is up to Raymond of Sabunde (Ramon Sibiuda, c. 1385-1436), who extensively and explicitly spoke of nature like a book (Raymond of Sabunde 1501; De Puig 1993; Conti 2004)2, like a place wherein the Creator’s traces are identifiable. Hans Blumenberg largely explored this idea, and he resorted to the metaphor to inspect roots, turning points and changes of Western philosophical thought (Blumenberg 1981: especially chapter 1). According to Blumenberg, “truth” is a metaphor of paramount importance: Aristotle weaved nature and truth to such an extent that truth and nature have the same power to show themselves, and the nature’s essence matches its truth. The classical thought considers nature as a truth’s dress, just one of several dresses from ancient and medieval wardrobe used by philosophers and theologians to speak about truth in metaphorical terms, in additional to those of light, force, energy. Thus, for instance Ramon Llull designated the truth as a “dignity” of God, and according to Milton “God himself is truth”. The modern age discovered the dichotomy between subject and object, and the relationship between God and the truth became mediated by knowledge. Hence, knowledge, not contemplation, becomes what to look for in order to be happy. In this knowledge, the subject plays a decisive role, although swinging and exposed to doubt and uncertainty. Therefore, science, the 2 The book became very famous because it was translated into French by Michel de Montaigne in 1569. Another way to quote the Raymond of Sabunde’s book is Scientia libri creaturarum siue libri naturae et scientia de homine and it has many editions. MARCACCI & ROSSI, Reasoning by Metaphors in Science, Philosophy and Practice 9 “new science”, becomes bearer and ensign of a new way of looking at the world. Of course, the metaphor of the book of nature has exercised an irreplaceable conditioning for the emergence of new scientific perspectives. Suffice it to think of Galileo, who related the metaphor of the book of nature with the mathematical cipher enabling to decode it: this constituted a central assumption in his thinking. Along the path of science, the metaphor has played several roles. Remarkably, it has had a heuristic and cognitive role in several moments of the history of science. One example is the concept of infinity, which was variously elaborated in mathematicians and philosoph- ers’ minds. When such a concept became a cosmological hypothesis, it compelled astronomers to verify how really big the cosmos was (see Marcacci-Zaffino in this volume). Similarly, thinking the infinitely small and making it suitable to describe curvilinear movements required a certain degree of abstraction (see Bussotti-Pisano in this volume). Thus, metaphors have facilitated the approach to new concepts, like stretched strings to be grasped in order to get a first hang and later begin defining them. Finally, they have helped us to find the “right words”. 2. Windows and parents, demons and angels: the pervasiveness of the metaphor When a discipline or a research theme takes shape, its technical and scientific dictionary does the same as well. During such a process, words can be acquired from the common dictionary, then emptied of their denotative meaning and filled with a new sense. Words such as reproduction, chaos, catastrophe, singularity have