Metaphors In Scientific Thinking

Modern studies in metaphor have permeated into man's cognitive field to such an extent that it makes metaphor an important issue for linguistics, cognitive science and philosophy. Metaphors in the scientific thinking are drawing an increasing attention from scientific philosophers.The paper firstly reviews the history and status quo of the metaphor research. Studies in metaphor can date back to Aristotle, whose achievement has affected the western rhetoric for over two thousand years. Until 1980's people came to realize the metaphor was essentially conceptual and constituted an important part of human culture and thinking. The paper analyzes the connotation of metaphor and defines it as a way of expressing feelings and understanding things in the process of interaction between targets and sources. According to this, the author divides metaphors into rhetoric metaphors and cognitive metaphors. Metaphor in science is the most important tool in cognition.The paper makes a systematic study on the characteristics of metaphor, origin of the sources, the epistemology basis for the production of metaphors. The author finds three features attributed to the scientific metaphors: 1. Scientific metaphors embody the open and exploratory nature of metaphor. Scientists employ the metaphors in order to find the similarity between targets and sources hence the discovery of new phenomena. 2. The scientific metaphors are original. Scientifics not only utilize but also create the similarity between targets and sources. The invention of new metaphors plays an important part in scientific metaphors. 3. Scientific metaphors are verifiable. The metaphors based on scientific hypothesis and scientific models are subject to confirmation and falsification. The epistemology reasons for scientists' usingmetaphors are as follows: Human beings understand the world and explore the unknown by projecting the existing concepts to unknown sphere. Therefore, metaphors are important methods for scientists to formulate new concepts and hypothesis, functioning as tools for naming, describing, explaining and predicting. In addition, in the discussion of the relationship between metaphors and models, the author finds that metaphors play a pivotal role in constructing scientific models, specifically those representing the unknown things. However, not all the models are metaphorical and metaphorical models are not necessarily the appropriate description of objects in research.In the end the paper makes a preliminary probe into cognitive mechanism of scientific metaphors. The author analyzes the cognitive mechanism of scientific production based on the continuum between rational thinking in people's daily life and the rational thinking in scientific cognition as well as the theory of dynamic type hierarchy proposed by E. C. Way. The author also raises some problems for further study.In the author's opinion, it is necessary to make a comprehensive study of metaphors in scientific thinking. It is because metaphors are important not only in scientific cognition but also in Chinese cultures especially Chinese characters. Therefore, when we understand the relationship between metaphors in science and those in the daily language, we can further realize and take the advantage of our national thinking in metaphors so as to improve the creativity in science of China.