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Single Idea 8861
[filed under theme 19. Language / F. Communication / 6. Interpreting Language / d. Metaphor
]
Full Idea
There is hardly a word in the language - be it an adverb, preposition, conjunction, or what have you - that is devoid of metaphorical potential.
Gist of Idea
Hardly a word in the language is devoid of metaphorical potential
Source
Stephen Yablo (Apriority and Existence [2000], §12)
Book Ref
'New Essays on the A Priori', ed/tr. Boghossian,P /Peacocke,C [OUP 2000], p.213
A Reaction
Yablo goes on to claim that metaphor is at the heart of all of our abstract thinking. 'Dead metaphors' (like the "mouth" of a river) sink totally into literal language. I think Yablo is on the right lines.
The
33 ideas
from Stephen Yablo
18993
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If sentences point to different evidence, they must have different subject-matter
[Yablo]
|
18992
|
Sentence-meaning is the truth-conditions - plus factors responsible for them
[Yablo]
|
18994
|
The content of an assertion can be quite different from compositional content
[Yablo]
|
18996
|
A statement S is 'partly true' if it has some wholly true parts
[Yablo]
|
18997
|
Truth-conditions as subject-matter has problems of relevance, short cut, and reversal
[Yablo]
|
18998
|
Parthood lacks the restriction of kind which most relations have
[Yablo]
|
18999
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y is only a proper part of x if there is a z which 'makes up the difference' between them
[Yablo]
|
19001
|
'Pegasus doesn't exist' is false without Pegasus, yet the absence of Pegasus is its truthmaker
[Yablo]
|
19002
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A nominalist can assert statements about mathematical objects, as being partly true
[Yablo]
|
19003
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Most people say nonblack nonravens do confirm 'all ravens are black', but only a tiny bit
[Yablo]
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19004
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Gettier says you don't know if you are confused about how it is true
[Yablo]
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19005
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Not-A is too strong to just erase an improper assertion, because it actually reverses A
[Yablo]
|
19006
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An 'enthymeme' is an argument with an indispensable unstated assumption
[Yablo]
|
19007
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A theory need not be true to be good; it should just be true about its physical aspects
[Yablo]
|
10577
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Concrete objects have few essential properties, but properties of abstractions are mostly essential
[Yablo]
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10578
|
We are thought to know concreta a posteriori, and many abstracta a priori
[Yablo]
|
10579
|
Putting numbers in quantifiable position (rather than many quantifiers) makes expression easier
[Yablo]
|
10580
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Mathematics is both necessary and a priori because it really consists of logical truths
[Yablo]
|
8858
|
Philosophers keep finding unexpected objects, like models, worlds, functions, numbers, events, sets, properties
[Yablo]
|
8859
|
The main modal logics disagree over three key formulae
[Yablo]
|
8862
|
Platonic objects are really created as existential metaphors
[Yablo]
|
8861
|
Hardly a word in the language is devoid of metaphorical potential
[Yablo]
|
8864
|
We quantify over events, worlds, etc. in order to make logical possibilities clearer
[Yablo]
|
8863
|
We must treat numbers as existing in order to express ourselves about the arrangement of planets
[Yablo]
|
8865
|
If 'the number of Democrats is on the rise', does that mean that 50 million is on the rise?
[Yablo]
|
10805
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A sentence should be recarved to reveal its content or implication relations
[Yablo]
|
19493
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Governing possible worlds theory is the fiction that if something is possible, it happens in a world
[Yablo]
|
19494
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Fictionalism allows that simulated beliefs may be tracking real facts
[Yablo]
|
14381
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A statue is essentially the statue, but its lump is not essentially a statue, so statue isn't lump
[Yablo, by Rocca]
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19489
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For me, fictions are internally true, without a significant internal or external truth-value
[Yablo]
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19490
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Make-believe can help us to reason about facts and scientific procedures
[Yablo]
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19491
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'The clouds are angry' can only mean '...if one were attributing emotions to clouds'
[Yablo]
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9138
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An infinite series of sentences asserting falsehood produces the paradox without self-reference
[Yablo, by Sorensen]
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