Publications

Publication details [#10164]

Sørensen, Bent, Torkild Thellefsen and Torkild Moth. 2007. Metaphor and cognition from a Peircean perspective. 13 pp. URL
Publication type
Article in journal
Publication language
English

Abstract

C. S. Peirce had no theory of metaphor and provided only few remarks concerning the trope. Yet, some of these remarks seem to suggest that Peirce saw metaphor as fundamental to consciousness and thought. In this article we sketch a possible connection between metaphor and cognition; we understand Peircean metaphor as rooted in abduction; it is part of an intricate relation between experience, body, sign and guessing instinct as a semeiotic mechanism which can convey new insights. Thought is not necessarily connected with a brain. It appears in the work of bees, of crystals, and throughout the purely physical world; and one can no more deny that it is really there, than that the colors, the shapes, etc., of objects are really there. Consistently adhere to that unwarrantable denial, and you will be driven to some form of idealistic nominalism akin to Fichte's. Not only is thought in the organic world, but it develops there. (Bent Sørensen, Torkild Thellefsen and Torkild Moth)