Aspects of metaphor in physics

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This book offers a comprehensive exploration of the various forms of metaphor in physics through numerous case studies. It begins with a diachronic overview of existing perspectives on metaphor's role in the natural sciences, addressing key issues. By defining metaphor broadly as a lexical, semantic, and conceptual phenomenon, the text identifies its presence across different levels of physics discourse, including metatheory, methodology, the sociology of science, theory and conceptualization, education, and linguistic expression. While many historians and theorists focus on the relationship between scientific models and metaphor, this work adopts a cognitive semantics perspective. It examines how concept formation and terminology in physics leverage the metaphoric tendencies found in everyday language, framing abstract ideas in spatial terms and portraying inanimate objects as intelligent, measurable phenomena. The study also highlights how metaphoric processes facilitate the integration of new knowledge into existing, sometimes outdated, structures, rather than discarding them entirely. This approach underscores the dynamic interplay between metaphor and scientific understanding in the field of physics.