An analogy and a simile are similar in that they each are intended to convey an understanding through a comparison to something else more familiar and revealed. A metaphor in the West is merely a poetic tool to express an idea without ever directly saying it or directly revealing what is really being spoken about. A metaphor in the East and Middle East is not distinguished from direct truth and thus in a sense, doesn’t really exist even when being used. Metaphor in Eastern and Middle Eastern scriptures cause a great deal of awkward beliefs because the metaphors are not pointed out as such but rather left uninterpreted.
As far as analogy to a function mind, I found that the proposed US Constitutional government is amazingly analogous in both the way it was supposed to function and also in the ways that it fails to function as proposed.
A constitutional nation has a body of people and organizations [the “body” and its “organs”]. Feeding to the governance of the nation are local representatives [neurons] that meet in Congress [the “brain”] at the House of Representatives [subconscious]. In the House, issues of the body are discussed and proposed bills/actions [emotions] are presented to the Senate. The Senate attempts to rationalize the proposed urging into a more coordinated effort with they see of what is going on in the larger world picture and remembered wisdom [the conscious].
In this analogy, the President is actually merely a final reaction coordinator, a functionary. The President isn’t really supposed to be making hardly any decisions other than how to get something done once the Senate passes the proposed action to him. There was a subconscious urge to act, a conscious decision to act, but then something happens. The President was supposed to merely obey Congress, not the other way around as it is today. In today’s USA, the President is a demon Pharaoh in the mind who has usurped authority away from the greater functioning of the governing mind [“possessed”]. And a personal mind often has that same problem. When you see films of evil spirits that have taken over someone’s mind and body … well … yeah … that’s the USA.
The human brain/mind has all of the exact same types of strengths and weaknesses as the USA governing body: Congress, Executive, and [somewhat dysfunctional] Judiciary [conscience]. They get paid off, they know of secret things, they have unseen power to manipulate more than you would think, they betray each other and collaborate in hidden ways - the snakes that form the nation’s brain and house the Mind of Man.
Moreno wrote in another OP … something to the effect … we are not always conscious of all the implications contained in what we write … yet the telling is still there.
Some of my recent personal writing experiences validate Moreno’s claim.
Of course … it would be absurd for me to extrapolate from my personal experience to a larger community.
If the comment is true … the global bitching comment … it suggests at least that the man-made institutions … politics, economics, finance religion and so … were built on sand … and the sand is shifting … seriously shifting.
Now that’s a decent analogy, well worth repeating.
Doug Hofstadter compares the conscious mind to an ant colony
(Gödel, Escher, Bach).
The ants are individual neurons assigned to differing tasks, but comprising a functioning overview. Groups of ants perform specific functions as do neurons that react in different areas of the brain., etc. It’s an interesting analogy that spells out brain function and mental content.
Civilization does seem involved in a major shift of perspective. Whether the shift is toward some imagined utopia or dystopia is a matter of personal opinion.
"It is by metaphor that language grows. The common reply to the question ‘what is it’ is, when the reply is difficult or the experience unique, ‘well, it is like–’. "Julian Jaynes, 1976. Nagel explored the explanatory possibilities of metaphor in “What It’s Like To Be A Bat”. He assumed we could never know what that is like. Mind is not another species; it is a part of our being. Surely we can opine on what mind is like.
