Encyclopedia of Evolutionary Psychological Science

Living Edition
| Editors: Todd K. Shackelford, Viviana A. Weekes-Shackelford

Metaphor and Analogy

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DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-319-16999-6_3328-1
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Synonyms

Blending; Conceptual integration; Conceptual mapping; Convolution; Metonymy; Parable; Simile

Definition

Conceptual understanding that results from mapping, projection, compression, and elaboration of elements from different ideas, different mental spaces, and different concepts

Introduction

The mental operation of connecting or combining different concepts has been researched under many names over the last 3,000 years. The rhetorical tradition (Aristotle 1995) uses the terms “metaphor,” “metonymy,” “analogy,” “parable,” and “simile” (μεταφορά, μετωνυμία, ἀναλογία, παραβολή, παρομοίωση). Modern cognitive science has contributed the terms “convolution” (Thagard and Stewart 2011), “blending,” and “integration.”

The system of mental principles that guides and governs these operations is complex. Research on the subject stretches back to at least Aristotle, who wrote that “to do metaphor well is to see (consider) likenesses” (Poetics, XXII, 17; Aristotle 1995). When Aristotle...

Keywords

Evolutionary Psychology Archeological Record Mental Operation Concept Connection Brain Imaging Technique 
These keywords were added by machine and not by the authors. This process is experimental and the keywords may be updated as the learning algorithm improves.
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References

  1. Aristotle. (1991). On rhetoric: A theory of civic discourse (trans: Kennedy, G. A.). New York: Oxford University Press.Google Scholar
  2. Aristotle. (1995). Poetics (Ed. and trans: Halliwell, S.). In Aristotle, Vol. 23. Cambridge: Harvard [Loeb].Google Scholar
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Copyright information

© Springer International Publishing AG 2016

Authors and Affiliations

  1. 1.Case Western Reserve UniversityClevelandUSA