The facts of nature are what they are, but we can only view them through the spectacles of our mind. Our mind works largely by metaphor and comparison, not always (or often) by relentless logic. When we are caught in conceptual traps, the best exit is often a change in metaphor not because the new guideline will be truer to nature (for neither the old nor the new metaphor lies out there in the woods), but because we need a shift to more fruitful perspectives, and metaphor is often the best agent of conceptual transition.
logic metaphor mind nature

About This Quote

About Stephen Jay Gould

Stephen Jay Gould was a 20th-century American biologist and historian of science. Stephen Jay Gould was an American paleontologist, evolutionary biologist, and historian of science. He was one of the most influential and widely read authors of popular science of his generation. Read more on Wikipedia →

Themes

  • Nature — Appreciation for the natural world and our place within it

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