Comparisons – Page 23 – Science-Education-Research

appearance of culture was like a phase change

An example of a scientific concept used as an analogue,

"As for the critical point theory of the appearance of culture, it postulates that the development of the capacity for acquiring culture was a sudden, all-or-none type of occurrence in the phylogeny of the primates. …The whole process of the creation of modern man's capacity for producing and using culture, his most distinctive mental attribute, is conceptualised as one of a marginal quantitative change giving rise to a radical qualitative difference, as when water, reduced degree by degree without any loss of fluidity, suddenly freezes at 0˚C, or when a taxing plane gains sufficient speed to launch itself into flight."

Clifford Geertz (2000) The growth of culture and the evolution of mind (first published 1962), in The Interpretation of Cultures. Selected Essays. 2nd Edition. New York. Basic Books.

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instinctive behaviour is the outcome of physical keys inserted into organic locks

An example of metaphor used in writing about science,

"Beavers build dams, birds build nests, bees locate food, baboons organise social groups, and mice mate on the basis of forms of learning that rest predominantly on the instructions encoded in their genes and evoked by appropriate patterns of external stimuli: physical keys inserted into organic locks. But men build dams or shelters, locate food organise their social groups, or find sexual partners under the guidance of instructions encoded in flow charts and blueprints, hunting lore, moral systems and aesthetic judgement: conceptual structures moulding formless talents."

Clifford Geertz (2000) The impact of the concept of culture on the concept of man (first published 1966), in The Interpretation of Cultures. Selected Essays. 2nd Edition. New York. Basic Books

Read about 'The scientific language of an anthropologist'

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Many examples of science metaphors are listed in 'Creative comparisons: Making science familiar through language. An illustrative catalogue of figurative comparisons and analogies for science concepts'. Free Download.

man is a hierarchically stratified animal

An example of figurative language drawing upon scientific ideas:

"…the 'stratigraphic' conception of the relations between biological, psychological, social, and cultural factors in human life. In this conception, man is a composite of 'levels', each superimposed upon those beneath it and underpinning those above it. …

One did not have to assert that man's culture was all there was to him in order to claim that it was, nonetheless, an essential and irreducible, even a paramount ingredient in his nature. Cultural facts could be interpreted against the background of noncultural facts without dissolving them into that background or dissolving that background into them. Man was a hierarchically stratified animal, a sort of evolutionary deposit, in whose definition each level — organic, psychological, social, and cultural – had an assigned and incontestable place. To see what he really was, we had to superimpose findings from the various relevant sciences – anthropology, sociology, psychology, biology – upon one another like so many patterns in a moiré; and when that was done, the cardinal importance of the cultural level, the only one distinctive to man, would naturally appear, as would what it had to tell us, in its own right, about what he really was."

Clifford Geertz (2000) The impact of the concept of culture on the concept of man (first published 1966), in The Interpretation of Cultures. Selected Essays. 2nd Edition. New York. Basic Books

There is a kind of implicit analogy here between this model of the nature of man and the layering of geological deposits. As this is not made entirely explicit (there is no direct reference to geological structures), it can be seen as metaphor (Man is a hierarchically stratified animal, perhaps 'dissolving' as well) and simile (man is a sort of evolutionary deposit).

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Many examples of science similes are listed in 'Creative Comparisons: Making Science Familiar through Language. An illustrative catalogue of figurative comparisons and analogies for science concepts'. Free Download.

anthropological analysis does not set produce symmetrical crystals of significance purified of the material complexity

An example of the use of science concepts as metaphors:

"…it does make the view of anthropological analysis as the conceptual manipulation of discovered facts, a logical reconstruction of a mere reality, seem rather lame. To set forth symmetrical crystals of significance, purified of the material complexity in which they were located, and then attribute their existence to autogenous principles of order, universal properties of the human mind, or vast, a priori weltsanchauungen [worldviews], is to pretend a science that does not exist and imagine a reality that cannot be found."

Clifford Geertz (2000) Thick description: toward an interpretative theory of culture, in The Interpretation of Cultures. Selected Essays. (2nd Edition)

Geertz uses a scientific metaphor to discuss the nature and limits of anthropology.

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plant rostellum is like a boat

An example simile blending into metaphor in science writing,

"This brown object I will call "the boat-formed disc." It forms the middle portion of the posterior surface of the rostellum, and consists of a narrow strip of the exterior membrane in a modified condition. Its summit…is pointed, its lower end rounded, and it is slightly bowed, so as altogether to resemble a boat or canoe. It is rather more than 4/100 of an inch in length, and less than 1/100 in breadth. It is nearly rigid, and appears fibrous, but is really formed of elongated and thickened cells, partially confluent.

This boat, standing vertically up on its stern, is filled with thick, milky, extremely adhesive fluid, which, when exposed to the air, rapidly turns brown, and in about one minute sets quite hard. An object is well glued to the boat in four or five seconds, and when the cement is dry the attachment is wonderfully strong. The transparent sides of the rostellum, on each side of the disc, consist of membrane, attached behind to the edges of the boat, and folded over in front, so as to form the anterior face of the rostellum. This folded membrane, therefore, covers, almost like a deck, the cargo of viscid matter within the boat.
The anterior face of the rostellum is slightly furrowed in a longitudinal line over the middle of the boat…"

Charles Darwin (1862) On the various contrivances by which British and foreign orchids are fertilised by insects, and on the good effects of intercrossing. London: John Murray

Darwin describes part of the rostellum of Spiranthes autumnalis as being like a boat (boat-formed, resembling a boat or canoe), but then shifts to referring to it as 'a' this' or 'the' boat (a metaphor). The metaphor gets extended by being said to have a stern and the further simile of a membrane acting like a deck (this could even been seen as an analogy: the membrane on the rostellum is like – maps to – a deck on a boat) which protects the cargo.

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scientific drawing of parts of an orchid flower and a photograph of an orchid — Figure from Charles Darwin's Fertilisation of Orchids and Orchis mascula flowers (from Wikipediam, licensed under the Creative Commons Attribution-Share Alike 3.0 Unported license)

drum-like pedicel rotates like the hand of a clock

An example of simile in scientific writing (about Habenaria chlorantha / Large Butterfly Orchis):

"The drum-like pedicel is of the highest importance, not only by rendering the viscid disc more prominent and more likely to stick to the face of an insect whilst inserting its proboscis into the nectary beneath the stigma, but on account of its power of contraction.

… But observe what takes place: in a few seconds after the inner end of the drum-like pedicel is removed from its imbedded position and exposed to the air, one side of the drum contracts, and this contraction draws the thick end of the pollinium inwards, so that the caudicle and the viscid surface of the disc are no longer parallel, as they were at first…. At the same time the drum rotates through nearly a quarter of a circle, and this moves the caudicle downwards, like the hand of a clock, depressing the thick end of the pollinium or mass of pollen-grains."

Charles Darwin (1862) On the various contrivances by which British and foreign orchids are fertilised by insects, and on the good effects of intercrossing. London: John Murray

Darwin describes the pedicel as drum-like, but later shifts to metaphor ("one side of the drum", "the drum rotates"). A second simile is used to describe how the rotation of the drum was like "like the hand of a clock".

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Photograph of a buttery orchid flower — Platanthera chlorantha, a butterfly orchid (photographer Ivar Leidus, from Wikipedia, licensed under the Creative Commons Attribution-Share Alike 4.0 International license).

we are ignorant of the first springs of nature

An example of metaphor in historical science writing,

"We cannot know anything of nature but by an analysis of it to its true initial causes: and till we know the first springs of natural motions, we are still but ignorants. These are the alphabet of science, and nature cannot be read without them. Now who dares pretend to have seen the prime motive causes, or to have had a view of nature, while she lay in her simple originals? We know nothing but effects, and those but by our senses. Nor can we judge of their causes, but by proportion to palpable causalities, conceiving them like those within the sensible horizon. Now 'tis no doubt with the considerate, but that the rudiments of nature are very unlike the grosser appearances. Thus in things obvious, there's but little resemblance between the mucous sperm, and the completeed animal. The egg is not like the oviparous production: nor the corrupted muck like the creature that creeps from it. There's but little similitude betwixt a terreous humidity, and plantal germinations; nor do vegetable derivations ordinarily resemble their simple seminalities. So then, since there's so much dissimilitude between cause and effect in the more palpable phenomena, we can expect no less between them, and their invisible efficients. Now had our senses never presented us with those obvious seminal principles of apparent generations, we should never have suspected that a plant or animal could have proceeded from such unlikely materials: much less, can we conceive or determine the uncompounded initials of natural productions, in the total silence of our senses."

Joseph Glanvill (1661) Scepsis Scientifica; or, The Vanity of Dogmatizing

Glanvill argues for the investigation of the hidden causes/mechanisms of nature (see also: nature like a watch has hidden workings). Initial causes as 'first springs' is a metaphor that reflects a common mechanical worldview in early science, and Galnvill compares these to an alphabet for reading nature (an extended metaphor).

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Nature is personified in the reference to her simple 'originals' (an archaic term for source or cause – Merriam-Webser Dictionary).

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Many examples of personification are included in 'Creative comparisons: Making science familiar through language. An illustrative catalogue of figurative comparisons and analogies for science concepts'. Free Download.

Creatures creeping (nice alliteration) from the corrupted muck seems to refer to the longstanding idea that some simple organisms such as worms and flies did not arise from parents of the same kinds but from decaying material, that is, by spontaneous generation.

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nature like a watch has hidden workings

An example of analogy in historical writing about science,

"For nature is set a going by the most subtle and hidden instruments; which it may be have nothing obvious which resembles them. Hence judging by visible appearances, we are discouraged by supposed impossibilities which to nature are none, but within her sphere of action. And therefore what spews only the outside, and sensible structure of nature; is not likely to help us in finding out the magnalia. 'Twere next to impossible for one, who never saw the inward wheels and motions, to make a watch upon the bare view of the circle of hours, and index: and 'tis as difficult to trace natural operations to any practical advantage, by the sight of the cortex of sensible appearances. He were a poor physician, that had no more anatomy, than were to be gathered from the physnomy. Yea, the most common phenomena can be neither known, nor improved, without insight into the more hidden frame. For nature works by an invisible hand in all things: and till Peripateticism can shew us further, than those gross solutions of qualifies and elements; 'twill never make us benefactors to the world, nor considerable discoverers. But its experienced sterility through so many hundred years, drives hope to desperation."

Joseph Glanvill (1661) Scepsis Scientifica; or, The Vanity of Dogmatizing.

Glanvill here draws two analogies for the investigation of nature – relating to watchmaking and medicine. Modern science includes the existence at the nanoscale of quantum objects(/events) which are quite unlike familiar objects of the everyday scale: "most subtle and hidden instruments; which it may be have nothing obvious which resembles them" indeed.

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Nature is personified as a 'her',

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we cannot see the first springs and wheels that set the rest a-going

An example of nature described through a mechanical metaphor,

"In things without us, ignorance is no wonder; since we cannot profound into the hidden things of nature, nor see the first springs and wheels that set the rest a-going. We view but small pieces of the universal frame, and want phenomena to make entire and secure hypotheses. But if that whereby we know other things, know not itself; if our souls are strangers to things within them, which they have far greater advantages of being acquainted with than matters of external nature; I think then this first instance will be a fair one, for the extorting a confession of that ignorance I would have acknowledged."

Joseph Glanvill (1661) Scepsis Scientifica; or, The Vanity of Dogmatizing

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selection pressure summarises many reproductive outcomes just as gas pressure summarises many molecular motions

An example of an analogy between different areas of science,

"There is a causal story behind each and every mutation, each and every chiasma, each and every choice of a mating partner, each and every union of gametes, each and every catastrophe that did not happen. But this story is untellable because of incomplete information, chaotic dynamics, and computational complexity. And if it could be told, the story would be incomprehensible. One must simplify to tell a tale, giving greater salience to some items and leaving loose ends.

A pedant could argue that pressure is not an efficient cause and should be expunged from physical explanations–only individual molecular impacts are truly causal–but his argument would be dismissed as obfuscation. For questions at the appropriate scale, pressure provides a perfectly adequate explanation, indeed one that is superior to the unattainable account that describes each and every molecular collision. Darwinian final causes are similarly grounded in efficient causes and are perfectly adequate, indeed indispensable, for certain kinds of biological explanation. A 'selection pressure' summarises many reproductive outcomes just as the pressure of a gas summarises many molecular motions. Darwinism, like thermodynamics, is a statistical theory that does not keep track of every detail…"

Haig, David (2014). Fighting the good cause: meaning, purpose, difference, and choice. Biology & Philosophy, 29(5), 675-697. https://doi.org/10.1007/s10539-014-9432-4

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gene-selectionist and developmental-systemist perspectives are like thermodynamcs and mechanics

An example of an analogy between two branches of science,

"Gene-selectionists use the language of statistics, of variances, correlations and average effects, whereas developmental-systemists prefer 'causal' accounts. The contrast, within physics, between mechanics and thermodynamics provides a useful analogy. Thermodynamics is a statistical theory, not an exact causal theory. It makes predictions that are right on average. In principle, a thermodynamic account of any system could always be superseded by a complete mechanical account, but in many circumstances an exact causal account is not practical, nor even possible, nor would it add much to the thermodynamic explanation.

There is, in principle although not in practice, a complete account of all evolutionary change expressed in terms of proximate physical causes that makes no appeal to concepts of selection, information, average effects, and the like. But, I will settle for what is practical and predictive."

Haig, David (2012). The strategic gene. Biology & Philosophy, 27(4), 461-479. https://doi.org/10.1007/s10539-012-9315-5

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