VOL. IV (XXI) 2009 - Departamentul de Filosofie si Stiinte ale ...

IASMINA PETROVICI 67
metaphorical sentence, as species of the imaginary may impose/require a
cognitive function.
Metaphorical constructs in the field of science are the best example to
prove the possibility of metaphor, in general, to exceed the semantics’ area,
with the focus falling on their cognitive relevance. The idea of a functional
similarity between metaphor and the scientific model proved to be especially
fruitful in this respect. As they approach the matter of the reference within the
metaphorical sentences, in context of the “heuristics’ logics”, Max Black and
Mary B. Hesse state that a model is used most of the times in the genesis of
scientific theories as a heuristic instrument of re-description 9 to the aspects
of the various levels of scientific reality. Both Black and Hesse will admit that,
in what concerns the reference to reality, the model plays a similar part in the
context of scientific knowledge to that of the metaphor within the poetic
language. Scientific explanations often resort to metaphorical re-descriptions
of the targeted field, as the theoretical models presuppose the sense of an
isomorphism which allows connection between the real aspect and the
imaginary aspect they comprise. Black will try to delineate the
epistemological dimension of scientific imagination from the psychological
dimension, by suggesting a theory of the models in which the criterion of
hierarchy is given by their capacity to enhance scientific knowledge 10 .
Applying a perspective of existential interpretation 11 , Black distinguishes
between “scaled models”, “analogous models” and “theoretical models”. At
the inferior level of the hierarchy there are the “scaled models” (simulations,
schematics, miniatures of some physical processes); their function is similar
to that of the iconic signs. These models imply their referent on basis of an
asymmetrical relationship; they imitate or partly reproduce certain pertinent
characteristics of the original:
“They want to show what the object is like (how it looks) and the way in
which it functions (how it works)” 12 .
The interpretation conventions of these models presuppose just
knowledge of the partial identity of the pertinent characteristics. Upon the
second level “analogous models” are situated; for instance, hydraulic models
of the economical systems, computers’ electrical circuits, which resemble the
original due to a structural isomorphism, as their representation assumes a
higher degree of abstractness, specific to the imaginary medium term. The
9
“To make good use of a model, we usually need an intuitive grasp…of its
capacities, but so long as we can freely draw inferences from the model, its
picturability is of no importance”; Black, M., Models and Metaphor: Studies in
language and philosophy, Cornell University Press, Ithaca, 1962, p. 232-233
10
Arbib, M.A., Hesse, M.B., „Language, metaphor and a new epistemology”, în The
construction of reality, Cambridge University Press, Cambridge-New York, 1990,
p.147-161
11
Ricoeur, P., Metafora vie, Bucureşti, Editura Univers, 1984, p.371
12
Ibidem, p.372