Nick Zangwill

Nick Zangwill

Professor of Philosophy at Durham University.

Visit Nick Zangwill’s website here.

Presentation:

Metaphor as Appropriation
Wednesday, 8 June 2011
16:00-18:00 at McFetridge Room, Birkbeck Philosophy Dept (14 Gower Street)

I sketch an appropriation account of metaphor in the light of a
general evolutionary-game-theoretic conception of linguistic meaning.
Metaphor, I propose, is like artistic appropriation, or any co-opting
of one functional thing, which gives it another use on an occasion.
Duchamp took the Mona Lisa, or rather a reproduction of it, and added
a moustache. A metaphor is similar: it takes a literal word and uses
and abuses it, like the moustache on the Mona Lisa. I also address
issues arising from disagreement and the role of logic in metaphorical
discourse.