Reasoning with visual metaphors

Author:

McAllister James W.

Abstract

AbstractResearch 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.

Publisher

Cambridge University Press (CUP)

Subject

Artificial Intelligence,Software

Reference67 articles.

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