Abstract
The metaphorical network that permeates the scientific knowledge and discourse currently attracts the interest of many researchers. In the light of the growing body of references which reveal that the use of metaphor is both beneficial and detrimental to science, the aim of the present paper is to explore the relevance of some metaphors generated by writing and boosted by the prestige of this communicative technology. The close reading of the foundational texts in science would undoubtedly reveal their metaphorical architecture. If one considers them as nodes in a network, the major works of science act as inflection points that drive changes in the trajectory of scientific inquiry and (re)shape the way we understand reality. It clearly falls beyond the scope of this paper to chart the metaphorical map of the reference works in science. Instead, I choose to focus on the writings of Carolus Linnæus, the founder of modern classification in botany, in order to highlight his use of metaphors rooted in the tradition of writing. More precisely, I approach the library metaphor in order to show that the Linnæan conceptualization of nature as a library acted as the testing ground for his theories, accelerated the internationalization of many scientific plant names and consolidated the stability of the vernacular botanical terminologies.
Highlights
The metaphorical network that permeates the scientific knowledge and discourse currently attracts the interest of many researchers
Bible stood at the heart of such an imaginary library as the book of books and the supreme symbol of universal harmony (Rieger, 2000). The connections among such concepts as book and library, on the one hand, and memory and nature, on the other hand, outline the symbolic shifts created during various ages and, the historical dimension of culture, and the opportunity to review and to map the variation across different areas or domains of human knowledge. In line with this broader scope, the present paper aims at revealing, with regard to Carolus Linnæus’s model of scientific classification, the threefold metaphorical understanding of the library as: 1. a priviledged space of knowledge and observation; 2. a heritage of encyclopædic data and 3. an information organization system
The excellent studies devoted by the American classicist John Lewis Heller (1906–1988) to the works of Carolus Linnæus acknowledged that the lapidary, essentialist style of the Swedish naturalist undoubtedly followed a traditional rhetorical trajectory and it was infuzed with numerous allusions, quotations and references excerpted from the Greek and Roman literature (Heller, 1983, passim)
Summary
As writing became the best means to preserve human knowledge, the relevant aspects and activities entailed by it, from alphabets, writing instruments and text types to reading and writing techniques, have acquired multiple values destined to promote the prestige of the respective communicative technology. Each of the stages in the evolution of writing, namely handwriting, typewriting and, more recently, e-writing, sheds light on its array of metaphors which pervade the historical landscape of knowledge. Some of the network constituents developed their own autonomous constellations. Symbolic matrices such as alphabet, language or book, with numerous instantiations in arts, religion and science are prime examples of this ongoing evolution based on cultural selection.
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