Examples, Models, Metaphors, Experiments, and Metaphysics

Examples, Models, Metaphors, Experiments, and Metaphysics

In our first set of blog posts, we are going to focus on the different kinds of meaning, and of generating meaning.

The title lists five different, very general, categories of meanings. What we are going to do here is search the internet for examples of these types of meaning, and then examine what kind of meaning they provide.

We use examples all the time. They can be elicited or indicated in a variety of ways. I might say to you, "for example" or "show me" or "really?" (Here, I just gave you an example of what an example is.) Sometimes, examples are indicated by the abbreviation "e.g.", which means "exempli gratia," Latin for "provide an example please."

Models are a special kind of example, that show how a state of affairs is or works. When Galileo Galilei dropped weighted balls from the Tower of Pisa (in order to demonstrate his theory about the relationship of mass and acceleration), he was providing a model of that theory. As we will see later in the semester, Descartes' argument about the wax (or honeycomb) is another classic model. A model presents a physical representation of an abstract theory.

Metaphors are abstract in a different way. Also, there are many forms of metaphors: similes, allegories, typologies, allegories, personifications, anthropomorphisms, symbols, and others. These are non-literal forms of speech, in which the thing being talked about represents something other than itself. Plato's Cave and The Matrix are both allegories - stories that are not about the plot of the story. Rather, the plot and characters mean something else (no spoiler here - I won't give away their meanings yet).

Experiments are like models, except that the model demonstrates a theory, while an experiment tests a theory. In the first case, the model shows something that is a fait accompli - already established. The experiment is based on a hypothesis that such-and-such is the state of affairs. The experiment is undertaken in order to prove this to be the case (or not). The attempts of astronomers in the 1930's and 40's to get photographic evidence from a full solar eclipse to prove Einstein's relativity theory were experiments. The fact that they did not follow the "experimental model" is due to the nature of meaning in astronomy - what passes for "proof" in astronomy is not the same as what passes for "proof" in other sciences (an important point!).

Metaphysics is the study, not of individual objects, but of categories of objects, and especially the most general categories. The most important topic of metaphysics, therefore, is also the most general topic - Being. Being is the most general topic, because it is the one meaning that all things that can be thought have in common. If they can be thought, they have being (to that extent). Metaphysics (and ontology) study Being - the ways things are. To study the way things are, is to study the meaning of things. To study the meaning of things, we also have to study how we know (or access) that meaning. The study of how we know what we know is called "epistemology" (theory or study of knowledge).

Sorry for the long intro, but this is a difficult topic. Please look at my next post for examples of the kinds of posts I'm looking for.