Denver Philosophy Meetup
Details
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Symbols and Metaphors:
We use symbols every single day without thinking about it. Every letter you are reading right now is a symbol. Every number, every road sign, every logo, every flag. A symbol is simply something that stands in for something else. The letter "A" is just a shape. A red octagon is just a piece of metal. But we have all agreed on what they mean, and that agreement is what makes communication, and arguably thinking itself, possible.
Metaphors work similarly but go deeper. When we say someone is "climbing the ladder" at work, or that an argument "fell apart," or that a politician is "out of touch," we are not speaking literally. We are borrowing the logic of one thing to describe another. Most of the time, we do not even notice we are doing it.
Here is the interesting question philosophers have been wrestling with: what if this goes all the way down? What if even our most serious, careful thinking is built on metaphors so familiar we have stopped seeing them? What if we do not just use symbols to express our thoughts, but actually think in symbols, and cannot get outside them?
Consider a few everyday examples. The words "home" and "house" describe the same physical structure, but they feel completely different. Why? A pink ribbon on a lapel communicates something no sentence could quite capture with the same immediacy. The Nike swoosh says nothing, yet it means something.
The same thing happens in science and politics. When economists talk about a "trickle down" effect, or a "fiscal cliff," those metaphors are not neutral descriptions. They quietly steer how we think about what is happening and what should be done about it. When scientists describe genes as carrying "information" or the brain as "processing" data, those metaphors shape the research questions scientists think to ask.
The deeper you look, the more it seems that symbolic systems do not just help us communicate reality. They help construct what reality looks and feels like to us in the first place.
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Discussion Questions
Here are a few questions:
When you think about a word like "home" versus "house," or "freedom fighter" versus "terrorist," what is doing the work there? Is it the word itself, the speaker, or something in us as listeners?
Can you think of a symbol in your own life, a logo, a gesture, a phrase, that carries more meaning than it should rationally be able to carry? Where did that meaning come from?
If the metaphors and symbols around us shape how we think without our awareness, does that bother you? What would you even do about it?
Is there such a thing as a completely neutral, literal statement? Or is every way of describing something already a choice that carries a point of view?
If the symbols and stories we are born into shape what feels true to us before we ever start reasoning, are we really thinking for ourselves, or are we thinking inside a framework someone else built?
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