Metaphor as Technology

Critical Thinking through understanding Metaphor

Modules:

Introduction -- Metaphors for Humanity / Technology

Readings:

     Primary:

Henry David Thoreau, Walden: "Economy," "Where I Lived, and What I Lived For," "Reading," "Sounds," "The Ponds" (excerpts)

excerpt from Plato, The Phaedrus (on writing)

     Secondary:

excerpt from Jack Goody, Intro. to Interface Between the Written and the Oral (excerpt); "Technologies of the Intellect: Writing and the Written Word" (from The Power of the Written Tradition)

Assignments

Module 1 -- Metaphors affect how we think and feel

Readings:

     Primary:

William Blake, “A Poison Tree” (with pictures; text only)

Judy Collins, Both Sides Now

     Secondary:

Geroge Lakoff and Mark Johnson, Metaphors We Live By, pp. 3-13, 25-34, 46-51.

George Lakoff, "Anger," in Women, Fire, and Dangerous Things, pp. 380-415 -- this essay is often anthologized, appearing for instance in Reflections on Language, eds. Stuart and Terry Hirschberg, pp. 108-122.

     FURTHER PRACTICE:

Metaphor Exercise

Assignment

Module 2 -- Metaphors affect how we conceive of human nature: educating the mind

Readings:

     Primary:

excerpt from John Locke, “Of Ideas in General, and their Originality.”

excerpt from Henry Adams, The Education of Henry Adams

excerpt from William James, Talks to Teachers

     Secondary:

Metaphors We Live By pp. 52-68.

Assignments

Module 3 -- Metaphors in Action I: Determining Public Policy

Readings:

     Primary:

Nell Bernstein, "The War Off Drugs"

Nell Bernstein, The Drug War's Littlest Victims

excerpt from, Joe Klein, "How to Build a Better Democrat"

Philip E. Agre, "Imagining the Next War"

Rabbi Moshe Waldoks, "Bomb them with Butter"

Michael T. Kaufman, [Winning the Battle, Losing the War]

Ron Suskind, "Without a Doubt"

     Secondary:

Metaphors We Live By, pp. 156-158.

Assignments

Module 4 -- Metaphor and Responsibility

Readings:

     Primary:

"A true and most dreadful discourse of a woman possessed with the Devill . . . ." (published 1584) (Miami Students: see pictures of the original text through Early English Books Online; click on search, then search by title, or, if you are logged into the Network, click here.)

The Three Faces of Eve (Hollywood film starring Joanne Woodward, 1957)

     Secondary:

excerpt, from Ian Hacking, Rewriting the Soul: Multiple Personality and the Sciences of Memory

Assignment

Module 5 -- Metaphors in Action II: Understanding Animals

Readings:

     Primary:

from Georges Cuvier, The Animal Kingdom (1884)

Oxford English Dictionary: Impression

Rachel Carson, "Bats Knew It First," Collier's 114.24 (Nov. 18, 1944)

Donald R. Griffin, and Robert Galambos, "The Sensory Basis of Obstacle Avoidance by Flying Bats," Journal of Experimental Zoology 86 (1941): 481-506

Oxford English Dictionary: Sonar, Radar, Echolocation

     Secondary:

Metaphors We Live By, pp. 106-125.

Review of Metaphors We Live By

Assignments

After you have finished units 1 through 5, read "Reality Versus Metaphor."

Module 6-- Metaphors in Action III: Understanding Humans

Readings:

     Primary:

Mind as printing press:

excerpt from John Locke, “Of Perception," Of Retention”

Oxford English Dictionary: Impression

Mind as Computer:

excerpt from Vannevar Bush, “As We May Think”; Biography of Vannevar Bush

Steven Johnson, "Bitmapping: An Introduction"

excerpt from Mark Taylor, The Moment of Complexity: Emerging Network Culture

excerpt from J. M. Balkin, Cultural Software

Sense-dataum Theories, Routledge Encyclopedia of Philosophy and Oxford English Dictionary

Mind as . . . .

Current Ideas about How the Mind Works

     Secondary:

Metaphors We Live By, pp. 139-146.

Review of Metaphors We Live By

Assignments

Module 7 -- Changes in Thought: Making Truth

Readings:

     Primary:

excerpt from Henry Adams, The Education of Henry Adams

excerpt from Aristotle, Physics

excerpt from Sir Isaac Newton, Philosophiae naturalis principia mathematica

     Secondary:

Metaphors We Live By pp. 159-184.

excerpt from Cecilia Tichi, Shifting Gears

excerpt from Thomas S. Kuhn, "What are Scientific Revolutions?"

Sound is (like) a wave

Assginments

---

Go To OTHER SETS OF COURSE MODULES:

Technology and Identity

Narrative as Technology

---

BACK to Home Page