旧时明月照无眠 on Nostr: ...
之前有象友问过“语言不只是表述思维，它甚至塑造了思维本身、就是对世界的理解本身”有没有具体例子。我当时脑子里一时想不到。但今天读Marta Rose的newsletter里聊植物学如何把人类异性恋繁殖的语言impose到植物上不但造成了表述的复杂难懂还限制了对植物如何生活的想像和研究本身，觉得是一个很好的例子，而且也展示了所谓“科学”(的语言)里是如何充满了人为的ideology/bias/preassumption/myth，然后通过科学的“客观、真实”属性去naturalize(aka“洗白”)它们：
“Yet another example, from the book Botany of Empire, regards the ways we understand plant reproduction. Banu Subramaniam points to the ways metaphors for plant reproduction are rooted in European colonial norms of heterosexual reproductive sex and romance. Subramaniam argues that the ways we think “scientifically” about plant reproduction rely obsessively on metaphors related to Western binary categories of sex and gender and the normativity of heterosexual sex, which are themselves more ideological than they are scientific. She notes that in order to make this framework make sense, biologists have had to shoehorn the vast majority of plants into ill-fitting categories such as “bisexual” or “hermaphrodite,” because the flowers have both “male” and “female” parts, as well as “asexual,” for plants that propagage through roots, stems, leaves, and buds. “There are more exceptions than rules,” says Subramaniam. “Plants do such interesting things… if we had better ways to describe them that aren’t based around human reproduction, it might open up other ways to study them.”
The consequences of this apparently “scientific” metaphorical structuring of plant reproduction not only affects the way we think about plants, but it in turn reinforces the notion that these constructs regarding human sexuality are also scientific, neutral, and essentially rooted in biology. It’s a neat trick. The metaphors become mutually reinforcing in a way that gives a scientific gloss to concepts that are largely constructed and ideological.”
文章里还有更多(可能更直接易懂)的例子，以及可以怎样actively运用/更改metaphor。对语言、文化和思维之间互动有兴趣的值得一读。
The Spiral Lab | Metaphors We Change Culture By
https://thespirallab.substack.com/p/metaphors-we-change-culture-by
“Yet another example, from the book Botany of Empire, regards the ways we understand plant reproduction. Banu Subramaniam points to the ways metaphors for plant reproduction are rooted in European colonial norms of heterosexual reproductive sex and romance. Subramaniam argues that the ways we think “scientifically” about plant reproduction rely obsessively on metaphors related to Western binary categories of sex and gender and the normativity of heterosexual sex, which are themselves more ideological than they are scientific. She notes that in order to make this framework make sense, biologists have had to shoehorn the vast majority of plants into ill-fitting categories such as “bisexual” or “hermaphrodite,” because the flowers have both “male” and “female” parts, as well as “asexual,” for plants that propagage through roots, stems, leaves, and buds. “There are more exceptions than rules,” says Subramaniam. “Plants do such interesting things… if we had better ways to describe them that aren’t based around human reproduction, it might open up other ways to study them.”
The consequences of this apparently “scientific” metaphorical structuring of plant reproduction not only affects the way we think about plants, but it in turn reinforces the notion that these constructs regarding human sexuality are also scientific, neutral, and essentially rooted in biology. It’s a neat trick. The metaphors become mutually reinforcing in a way that gives a scientific gloss to concepts that are largely constructed and ideological.”
文章里还有更多(可能更直接易懂)的例子，以及可以怎样actively运用/更改metaphor。对语言、文化和思维之间互动有兴趣的值得一读。
The Spiral Lab | Metaphors We Change Culture By
https://thespirallab.substack.com/p/metaphors-we-change-culture-by