Thank you John for opening up the seas of discussion (again and again), steering our thought-forms through ineffable whirlpools (your dashboard mechanics are quite impressive!). I am now working through Lakoff and Johnson’s book Metaphors We Live By (again) and am naturally inclined to weave their thought with the intellectual fabric woven by the threads of Kastrup, Langer, Bergson. A quote from the book: "We have seen that metaphor pervades our normal conceptual system. Because so many of the concepts that are important to us are either abstract or not clearly delineated in our experience (the emotions, ideas, time, etc.), we need to get a grasp on them by means of other concepts that we understand in clearer terms (spatial orientations, objects, etc.). This need leads to metaphorical definition in our conceptual system. We have tried with examples to give some indication of just how extensive a role metaphor plays in the way we function, the way we conceptualize our experience, and the way we speak.”
Lakoff, in the book and in the recording, speaks about the various metaphors of TIME. TIME is a kind of (abstract) substance; can be quantified fairly precisely; can be assigned a value per unit
serves a purposeful end; is used up progressively as it serves its purpose. Take note that these metaphors of time take the abstract concept (time) and place them into space, give them an objective quality. Lakoff states that we have utilized this objective formation of time for thousands of years. I believe this is one of many reasons why Bergson’s temporal explorations are quite difficult to ‘grasp’. In the afterword to Metaphors they write “Yet they (fallacies of metaphor) are wrong, that is, they are at odds with the empirical evidence. The fact that they are wrong is no small matter. It has implications for all aspects of our lives, including war and peace, the environment, health, and other political and social issues. It bears directly on how we understand our own personal lives, and it bears directly on intellectual disciplines like philosophy, mathematics, and literary studies, all of which ultimately have important cultural effects.” This is, in part, what Langer concludes and in part what Bob Rosenburg (mentioned above) means when he says we need a new concept of time. It might be another 2,000 years before we can imagine time without space.
I want to invite others on this thread to join in a Monday conversation with Matt and me. We have had a couple of casual/serious conversations around Bergson, this thread, and the implications of recent explorations. Both of us are interested in continuing to explore time metaphors. @johnnydavis54: Wondering if you would like to become acquainted with Matt and possibly lead a Clean Language session Monday (or at a later time) in relation to time (we did something similar in 2017 Cosmos Café: Synchronicity and Modeling Time [11/28/17]). I am available between 10am-3pm EST Monday and propose reserving 11-1 as our timeslot. Thank you for considering joining us.