Living Metaphors

Living Metaphors Exploring Freedom and Heuristic Insight in Aesthetic Appreciation, Character Development, and Learning By Dylan Mackenzie A Thesis Submitted to the Faculty of Graduate Studies and Research at Saint Mary’s University in Partial Fulfillment of the Requirements for the Degree of Master of Arts in Philosophy October, 2019, Halifax, Nova Scotia © Dylan Mackenzie, 2019 Approved: John E. MacKinnon Supervisor Approved: Scott Edgar Examiner, Internal Approved: Steven Burns Examiner, External Date: October 1st, 2019 Living Metaphors Exploring Freedom and Heuristic Insight in Aesthetic Appreciation, Character Development, and Learning by Dylan Mackenzie Abstract I open this thesis by arguing that complex metaphor is neglected by prominent theorists in the theory of metaphor. Specifically, Max Black’s and Donald Davidson’s accounts of metaphor not only leave complex metaphor aside, but cannot account for extended metaphor, one variant of complex metaphor. I proceed to explore how revising our conception of metaphor accordingly generates a more robust understanding of both metaphor and the related notion of metaphoric competence. Paul Ricoeur’s account of metaphor is more convincing than Black’s and Davidson’s for this very reason. Subsequent to comparing these theories and arguing that the resultant view of metaphor enables us to appreciate better its role in both speculative thought and communication more generally, I consider implications of this emerging view for the fields of aesthetics, ethics, and pedagogy. Finally, I review an example of a complex metaphor, one which fittingly counts as a metaphor of metaphoric competence itself. October 1st, 2019 Mackenzie 1 Acknowledgments Immense thanks are due to Professor John MacKinnon, my supervisor, for his mentorship these past few years spent navigating the writing of this thesis. Without his support, expertise, style, and forbearance, this project would not have been possible. I would also like to thank Professors Scott Edgar and Steven Burns for their help in my early efforts to come up with a thesis idea that intrigued me, no less than their subsequent help in reflecting on the literature in this area in general, and, finally, for agreeing to review the project itself as internal and external examiners. Thanks are also in order for the rest of the team at Saint Mary’s University’s philosophy department, especially Todd Calder, Shelagh Crooks, and Mark Mercer, for their availability to discuss my chosen topic and for their insight. Similarly, I would not have been granted this opportunity in the first place without the foundational philosophical learnings instilled in me first by the Saint Francis Xavier University philosophy department, in particular, Professors Louis Groarke, William Sweet, and Steven Baldner. Outside of this department, Professors Suzanne Stewart, JeanGuy Lalande, and Joseph Khoury were also instrumental to my developing interest in and knowledge of the humanities and critical scholarship. After finishing my undergraduate degree, Professor Nebosa Kujundzic at the University of Prince Edward Island brought to my attention the considerable philosophical problems surrounding metaphor and I thank him for inspiring me to pursue these lines of inquiry more than half a decade later. Many friends have helped along the way, including Professor Paul Groarke, those of both the Saint Francis Xavier Philosophy Society and the Saint Mary’s Philosophy Society, and also the regulars of the Dalhousie Philosophy Colloquiums. Mackenzie 2 Finally, I must thank my family, especially my brothers Justin and Curtis, my wife Sarah, my parents, my grandparents, and all the rest for their supporting and encouraging my meandering philosophical endeavours. Mackenzie 3 Table of Contents 1 Figuring out Metaphor ............................................................................................................ 4 1.1 The Problem .................................................................................................................... 9 1.2 Regarding Allegory ....................................................................................................... 39 1.3 A History of Metaphorical Understanding .................................................................... 58 2 Towards a Better Account: Metaphor as a Process .............................................................. 60 2.1 Transcending Theoretical Boundaries: Ricoeur and Split Reference Theory ............... 62 2.2 The Roots of Ricoeur’s Theory of Metaphor: Fusion ................................................... 82 2.3 Overlapping Realms: Metaphor and Induction ........................................................... 104 2.4 More on Defamiliarization .......................................................................................... 141 2.5 The Role of Metaphor in Speculative Thought ........................................................... 151 3 The Significance of Heuristic Moments for Philosophy .................................................... 160 3.1 The Beauty of Metaphor ............................................................................................. 160 3.2 Virtue Ethics: Clarifying Heuristics ............................................................................ 163 3.3 Education and Freedom ............................................................................................... 167 4 Extended Example: A Meta(phor) Wisdom ....................................................................... 172 4.1 A Subtle Portrait of Saying Less and Thinking More in Rothfuss’ Bildungsroman... 173 4.2 The Plot Thickens: A More Detailed Examination of Kvothe’s Metaphoric Competence ............................................................................................................................. 208 4.3 Epilogue ...................................................................................................................... 226 Bibliographical Abbreviations .................................................................................................... 229 Glossary for Sections 4.1 and 4.2 ............................................................................................... 230 Works Cited ................................................................................................................................ 232 Mackenzie 4 1 Figuring out Metaphor The shape of metaphorical thought is also the shape of wisdom: what a human mind must do in order to comprehend a metaphor is a version of what it must do in order to be wise. But of course we are not wise in a vacuum; we are wise about things, situations, people, the world. Thus ... those who think metaphorically are enabled to think truly because the shape of their thinking echoes the shape of the world. Jan Zwicky1 The greatest thing by far is to have a command of metaphor. This alone cannot be imparted to another: it is the mark of genius, for to make good metaphor implies an eye for resemblances. Aristotle2 Literalness we cannot have. C. S. Lewis3 Not only are metaphors important objects of study in all disciplines, but studying the general phenomenon of metaphor is crucial insofar as it helps us become better communicators. The current breakdown in social, political, and intellectual dialogue that thinkers such as Jonathan Haidt and Joshua Greene seek to help us overcome might well be countered, or at least mitigated, by study in this area. And yet, the collapse they seek to redress is nothing new in the view of traditional rhetoric, however exacerbated it may be in our time. For the objects of study in rhetoric have long been the causes of misunderstanding. On Paul Ricoeur’s view, an integral part of any such remedy is to develop “‘command’ of the shifts of meaning that assure the effectiveness of language in communication,” that is, metaphoric mastery (RM, p. 79). Equating this kind of competence with “the poetic effort to look at the world and ourselves aslant,” Charles Baxter goes further, contending not just that this talent and what it requires is 1 Wisdom and Metaphor (henceforth, WM), foreword. 2 Poetics, 1459a8, translated by Richards in “The Command of Metaphor” The Philosophy of Rhetoric, p. 89, quoted in Paul Ricoeur, The Rule of Metaphor: Multi-disciplinary Studies of the Creation of Meaning in Language, p. 336, fn. 24, emphasis added. Hereafter, the latter will be abbreviated RM. I would like to thank Joseph Khoury for recommending Ricoeur’s work as a starting point for researching the theory of metaphor. 3 From “Bluspels and Flanasferes,” in Rehabilitations and Other Essays (New York: Oxford University Press 1939 pp. 135-58), quoted in Warren A. Shibles, Metaphor: an Annotated Bibliography and History, pp. viii, 174. Mackenzie 5 indispensable to intelligible and “legibly political” life, but that such abilities bring order to society by enlarging our capacity to cohabitate, communicate, and change.4 The potential for metaphoric competence to reduce confusion and re-orient us to the good life is one of the motivations for the present study of metaphor. If metaphoric competence alleviates significant problems, however, and, as such, merits study, then we must first ask: what is a metaphor? Certainly, there are established accounts that answer this question in distinct ways. Comparison theory treats metaphor either as an implicit simile or as an analogical relation in a proportional ratio such that one term relates to another as a different term relates

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