Visual Metaphors in the Sciences: The Case of Epigenetic Landscape Images

Journal for General Philosophy of Science / Zeitschrift für Allgemeine Wissenschaftstheorie:1-22 (2016)
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Abstract

Recent philosophical analyses of the epistemic dimension of images in the sciences show a certain trend in acknowledging potential roles of these images beyond their merely decorative or pedagogical functions. We argue, however, that this new debate has yet paid little attention to a special type of pictures, we call ‘visual metaphor’, and its versatile heuristic potential in organizing data, supporting communication, and guiding research, modeling, and theory formation. Based on a case study of Conrad Hal Waddington’s epigenetic landscape images in biology, we develop a descriptive framework applicable to heuristic roles of various visual metaphors in the sciences.

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Author's Profile

Jan Baedke
Ruhr-Universität Bochum

References found in this work

Models and Analogies in Science.Mary B. Hesse - 1963 - [Notre Dame, Ind.]: University of Notre Dame Press.
Metaphors We Live By.George Lakoff & Mark Johnson - 1980 - Ethics 93 (3):619-621.
On the Very Idea of a Conceptual Scheme.Donald Davidson - 1973 - Proceedings and Addresses of the American Philosophical Association 47:5-20.

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