BIOLOGY AS SOCIETY, SOCIETY AS BIOLOGY by Sabine Maasen (Editor), E. Mendelsohn (Editor), Peter Weingart (Editor) ( 9780792331742 )

Item Details

Title:

BIOLOGY AS SOCIETY, SOCIETY AS BIOLOGY
METAPHORS

By:

Sabine Maasen (Editor), E. Mendelsohn (Editor), Peter Weingart (Editor)

Format:

Hardback

List price:	£159.99
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ISBN 10:

0792331745

ISBN 13:

9780792331742

Publisher:

KLUWER ACADEMIC PUBLISHERS

Pub. date:

31 March, 1995

Edition:

1995 ed.

Series:

Sociology of the Sciences Yearbook v. 18

Pages:

362

Description:

Offers a look at the function of metaphors in mediating between two disciplinary cultures which represent and mold our views about nature and society, and the boundary between them. This book is useful for professionals and students of history, philosophy and sociology of science, biology, and literary science.

Synopsis:

not lie in the conceptual distinctions but in the perceived functions of metaphors and whether in the concrete case they are judged positive or negative. The ongoing debates reflect these concerns quite clearly~ namely that metaphors are judged on the basis of supposed dangers they pose and opportunities they offer. These are the criteria of evaluation that are obviously dependent on the context in which the transfer of meaning occurs. Our fundamental concern is indeed the transfer itself~ its prospects and its limits. Looking at possible functions of metaphors is one approach to under- standing and elucidating sentiments about them. The papers in this volume illustrate, by quite different examples, three basic functions of metaphors: illustrative, heuristic~ and constitutive. These functions rep- resent different degrees of transfer of meaning. Metaphors are illustrative when they are used primarily as a literary device, to increase the power of conviction of an argument, for example.Although the difference between the illustrative and the heuristic function of metaphors is not great, it does exist: metaphors are used for heuristic purposes whenever "differences" of meaning are employed to open new perspectives and to gain new insights. In the case of "constitutive" metaphors they function to actually replace previous meanings by new ones. Sabine Maasen in her paper introduces the distinction between transfer and transforma- tion.

Illustrations:

biography

Publication:

Imprint:

Kluwer Academic Publishers

Returns:

Returnable

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