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RESEARCH ARTICLE   Open Access    

Reasoning with visual metaphors

  • Institute of Philosophy

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  • Abstract: Research into visual reasoning up to now has focused on images that are literal depictions of their objects. I argue in this article that an important further mode of visual reasoning operates on images that depict objects metaphorically. Such images form part of the class of expressive symbols: they are found, for example, in allegorical representations in works of visual art, studied by iconology. They were also a common way of encapsulating insights about the universe in natural philosophy in the Renaissance. Many writers assume that expressive symbols have vanished from modern science, but I argue in the second part of the article that mathematical law statements in present-day physics should be seen, in part, as images that constitute expressive symbols of the world. In support of this view, I offer evidence that law statements relate to their objects metaphorically and that physicists engage with them primarily through visual inspection and visual reasoning.
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  • Cite this article

    James W. McAllister. 2013. Reasoning with visual metaphors. The Knowledge Engineering Review 28(3)367−379, doi: 10.1017/S0269888913000295
    James W. McAllister. 2013. Reasoning with visual metaphors. The Knowledge Engineering Review 28(3)367−379, doi: 10.1017/S0269888913000295
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RESEARCH ARTICLE   Open Access    

Reasoning with visual metaphors

  • Institute of Philosophy

  • Published online: 24 July 2013
The Knowledge Engineering Review  28,  2013, 28(3): 367−379  |  Cite this article

Abstract: Abstract: Research into visual reasoning up to now has focused on images that are literal depictions of their objects. I argue in this article that an important further mode of visual reasoning operates on images that depict objects metaphorically. Such images form part of the class of expressive symbols: they are found, for example, in allegorical representations in works of visual art, studied by iconology. They were also a common way of encapsulating insights about the universe in natural philosophy in the Renaissance. Many writers assume that expressive symbols have vanished from modern science, but I argue in the second part of the article that mathematical law statements in present-day physics should be seen, in part, as images that constitute expressive symbols of the world. In support of this view, I offer evidence that law statements relate to their objects metaphorically and that physicists engage with them primarily through visual inspection and visual reasoning.

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    Acknowledgments

    • I thank James Robert Brown, Mélanie Frappier, and Letitia Meynell, the editors of this special issue on ‘Visual Representation and Reasoning’, for inviting me to submit an article. I am additionally grateful to Professor Frappier for perceptive criticism of a previous draft, which resulted in substantial improvements.

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    Cite this article
    James W. McAllister. 2013. Reasoning with visual metaphors. The Knowledge Engineering Review 28(3)367−379, doi: 10.1017/S0269888913000295
    James W. McAllister. 2013. Reasoning with visual metaphors. The Knowledge Engineering Review 28(3)367−379, doi: 10.1017/S0269888913000295
    shu

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