What Good are Metaphors?
Overview:
The epistemic benefits of metaphors are undeniable: they help us to talk about things we could not talk about before, let us see things we have not seen before and help us to understand things we did not understand before. At the same time, they also have a 'dark' side, because they can also help us to devalue, insult and even dehumanize others. But how can metaphors be so useful on the one hand and so harmful on the other? What affective and cognitive mechanisms allow us to understand metaphors in the first place?
Prof. Dr. phil. Nikola Kompa
Albrechtstraße 28a
49076 Osnabrück
Room: 69/107
Phone: +49 541 969-7109
nikola.kompa@uni-osnabrueck.de
Publications:
- Kompa. N (in preparation): Metaphor, Gestalt, and Analogy – on the epistemic and aesthetic value of metaphor.
- Kompa, N. (2021). Insight by Metaphor – on the Epistemic Role of Metaphor in Science. In: A. Heidenreich/K. Mecke (eds.) Physics & Literature: Theory–Popularization– Aestheticization. Berlin/New York: De Gruyter, 23-47. DOI: 10.1515/9783110481112-002 – LINK (open access)
- Kompa, N. (2017). The Myth of Embodied Metaphor. Croatian Journal of Philosophy Vol. XVII, No. 50, 89-104 (Conference Proceedings).
- Kompa, N. (2015). Metaphern. In: Dies. (ed.): Handbuch Sprachphilosophie. Metzler, Stuttgart, 341-351.