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  • “We should not fart higher than our noses can smell”. A translation of a Haitian proverb - Can we actually fart higher than our noses can smell? No not really, if that happens then perhaps we have a cold or something. Therefore in that statement the metaphor is meant to be expressed figuratively speaking, not necessarily logical. But at the same time the message that is being broadcast makes perfect sense with the figure of speech. peoplebreeze com

  • “We see life through our telescope of endeavor, looking to secure what we’ve prospered, while forever aiming to better what we’ve inherited”. Again with a question – what is a telescope? What is it used for? What do we aimed for in life? Do we make preparation for our future endeavors? Well then if we do than it is the same as saying “we see life through our telescope of endeavor” because then the telescope represents an instrument use for looking into the future. peoplebreeze com

  • Maya Angelou “Bitterness is like cancer. It eats upon the host”. To check for validity of the statement we perform a logical analysis of the phrase even though it is a metaphorical phrase. What does cancer do to the human body? And how does someone who is bitter react? Can bitterness be use in conjunction with cancer, if it is we say that the metaphor is consistent with logic. peoplebreeeze com

  • We have described “truth” as Facts which are actual events that have gone to past. This is why we have stated that “truth always permits reason to take the path of least resistance”. This statement is valid because whenever a statement is true it can easily be proven by reason without any resistance. But if the statement is a lie and we try to argue that it’s the truth we are more likely to encounter resistance within our line of reason which can be regarded as “bumpy road.” peoplebreze com

  • To validate this statement we’ll demonstrate a series of thought process that is “The truth always permits reason to take the path of least resistance it is the lie that is the bumpy road”. We always begin with a question – what is truth – if we don’t know what truth is don’t guess it look it up in the dictionary – that’s why it’s there for. peoplebreeze com

  • To validate this statement we’ll demonstrate a series of thought process that is based on metaphorical thinking which we’ve come to recognize as Hieroglyphics Literature, but prior to that we’ll outline the difference between English Literature with metaphor and Hieroglyphics Literature. We’ll begin by outlining some examples English Literature & Metaphor, and for illustration we’ll analyze the statement for validity.

  • As explained by James Geary “metaphorical thinking is essential to how we understand ourselves, communicate, discover, learn and invent.” The most important thing he said is that “metaphor is a way of thought before it is a way with words.”

  • Simply beautiful

  • If i keep Quiet for 6 minutes does it mean i used Metaphors for keeping Quiet??

  • VS Ramachandran.. did a similar presentation.. he even used the Bubba and Kiki experiment.

  • I suppose it explains how Elvis replaced the dancing chickens.

  • Interesting presentation, but the fact that the average person speaks six metaphors a minute, no way.

  • I suggest you read George Lakoff and Mark Johnson's Metaphors We Live By (1980) to get a proper understanding of how metaphors work in relation to language and thought. An example of a metaphor which you would fail to acknowledge, for example is: 'in the morning'; you are talking about the morning as if it were a location. In summary, I would suggest that most people probably use more than six metaphors per minute, actually.

  • "Hello. How are you? Nice weather today. Work was very busy. I have to stop at the supermarket and buy some groceries. My wife will be mad at me if I am late." Normal conversation. No metaphors.

  • @robotpanda77 You have to stop at the supermarket?

  • @johnvattic1234 Yes, I am low on metaphors again because I can just never seem to use as many as this guy claims I do.

  • Interesting, funny, but too fast and superficial I think. Less than 10 minutes is not enough!

  • Very interesting talk!

  • I enjoy the general subject matter of this talk immensely but wish the speaker would provide more substance when he uses various experiments & scenarios to argue his points. I, for one, would like to have seen at least a bit of the three types of war descriptions and the metaphors that convinced students to act one way or another towards the hypothetical country requiring help.

    Interesting subject nevertheless...

  • I think all the speakers have a limited amount of time. It's funny, because i wasn't sure i would find this interesting. So i started watching, and before i knew it, the speech was over and left me wanting to hear more :).

  • Cool. He used an extended metaphor to describe metaphor.

  • @ChillPenguin2 You used one to describe him

  • Did you mean it in a metaphorical sense?

    The metaphor itself can't be seen. Only experienced inside - 'this is not i pipe'.

    If you were right, you wouldn't, because if so, the video itself would be a metaphor, to something different: similes (at least for us, which don't know much).

    it's confusing ;o)

    Ok, what did you say?

  • Look up the definition of a simile. You are wrong.

  • The truth is that he is referring to similes.

  • @NekroStevo The whole speech was a metaphor.

  • Actually he uses plenty of metaphors. A metaphor is when you describe something as being something else 'Juliet is the sun'. A simile is when you describe it as being like something else, 'Juliet is like the sun' or 'Juliet is as bright as the sun'.

  • love it - is he bipolar?

  • that was really interesting

  • What amazes me is that on here, youtube, there are so many amazing minds that are just sitting there in the heads of people who stia t home on their computers, whether it be their choice or not.

    A lot of you guys, in particular, Roiroid, your mind is fascinating. I'd love nothing more than to hear to talk about your own given specialist subject.

    TheRealGeeza, your literal thinking fascinates me too.

    You guys should have your own websites. :)

  • i luv u

  • Anyway the wind blows

  • I love metaphors. Metaphors are small Italian ducks which love ice cream.

    ..wait. I'm bad at this.

  • chweet talk

  • Astrology and Tarrot are metaphor.

    They bring together metaphors for aspects of our lives, and shuffle them in random ways. The power of metaphor forces us to consider the interpretations as if they were real - even though they are random - and thus it can expand our minds to possibilities we never thought about.

    Possibilities that are so random that we would normally dismiss them as noise, this way we harvest this "noise" to inspire us to break outof a life funk, or writers block, etc.

  • interesting points, but slightly dull presentation.

  • all fighting aside, you just gotta love the Rolex commercial...! =D

  • This is an interesting topic and metaphors are certainly at the core of how the brain organizes information. However, Geary does not develop a causal relationship between the housing market crash and media coverage's use of metaphor in this presentation. There are very few facts and a whole lot of artful persuasion. Between "metaphor" being repeated endlessly and the insertion of Elvis, Shakespeare, and Albert Einstein into argument; I ask "so what?" No new facts, just middle school english

  • good duration, well-paced, interesting and insightful talk.

  • ok i agree but what the f... is that rolex advertisment...pls stop that disasters because you all sound to me like idiots who talk s..t when you say all that and then you say rolex..!!!mercy...

  • @nireiny

    I am pretty sure that is a sponsor of TED, they sell advertising to Rolex. Rolex watches are considered to be a high class watch and they want people of high intellect wearing them. Its only natural that they would advertise them at TED.

  • @ringostar8 its not that they want people of high intellect to wear them, its that they think that people interested in TED will want to wear them... but really, i think that most intelligent people dont care about insanely expensive watches that are just as functional as watches that cost a few hundred

  • @Finiras They have always tried to appeal to the people that make the world go around, people of high intellect. They appeal to classy people I find. But I guess today intelligent people live the same lives as everyone else as oppose to the chasm that use to define class.

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  • @Finiras My watch cost me $36.00. Where do you buy your watches?

  • is it a completely analog watch that tracks the date (accounting for the 31-30 days cycle), daylight saving time, day of the week, have multiple clocks, an alarm, a stopwatch, run on solar energy and is it suitable for deep scuba diving, all while still having a beautiful, robust, scratchless and elegant design? i think a few hundred is a reasonable price for that.

  • Mine has "indiglo" and is water "resistant" to the depth of...inches and a genuine velcro band.

  • Yeah. The kind of people who buy Rolex are the same kind who drive Hummers.

  • come on now...you have to be joking...nothing of these is natural...may be only in your mind...and some others...but why don't u get the idea?...we are not talking here about money and stupid liitle things that provide only stupid ego and nothing more to human but for knowledge itself and progress...and a rolex is not a way to get to them, rolex philosophy is a way to destroy knowledge and progress..i find all this stupidity extremely dangerous for the human race...pls understand what i say..

  • Smart people are usually the ones with the cash because the jobs that pay the most are the jobs only intelligent people can do. Rolex would like to appeal to the rich people because its an expensive watch. Advertising at ted is a great way to appeal to the people who can afford an expensive watch. Its just a watch, its really not a big deal. I don't know why you feel the need to bring something up from 2 weeks ago when its really not important to linger on at all.

  • PSSsssssstt..

    Check it out.

  • It would be hilarious if this guy was wearing a sequenced jumpsuit, a pompadour with lambchop sideburns, a set of giant sunglasses, and big rings on almost all of his fingers. It would be like he was this massive Elvis fan, but was trying to disguise it in a pretentious speech about metaphors. I actually like what he's saying, but I couldn't help but imagine that funny situation. Thank ya, thank ya very much, ahh huh, karate chop

  • Sequined.

  • "Her lips are LIKE a volcano..."

    That's not a metaphor, that's a simile.

    This is a fifth grade grammar fact.

    One minute and eight seconds into your ten minute chat, and you've already lost my respect.

  • @Loraguy Simile is a form of metaphor.

  • That might be your opinion, but your opinion does not constitue a definition. Check any dictionary.

  • No, a simile is not a metaphor, just as a metaphor is not a simile. You might be of the opinion that they are the same thing, jbeye100, but your opinion is not a definition.  Look in any dictionary, they are two different things.

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  • deeptracy23, you are also wrong. The definition of the word simile does not contain the word metaphor, and the definition of the word metaphor does not contain the word simile. The fact that they are similar and serve the same function does not mean that they are one and the same. A hammer and a screwdriver are both tools, but a hammer is not a screwdriver.

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  • Links are irrelevant. Look in a dictionary; that's where you find actually definitions, not common misconceptions.

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  • @deeptracy23 actually if its a simile then its not a metaphor. a simile is when you compare 2 concepts (her lips are like a volcano thats hot) and a metaphor is when you completely replace the concept (im proud to say that she's my buttercup). The ground is so hot its like walking on fire vs. im walking on fire.

  • Using your analogy, 'tool' would be equivalent to 'metaphor'. 'Simile' would be 'Hammer'.

  • Again you are wrong. Screwdriver would be metaphor, hammer would be simile, and comparison/analogy would be tool.

    This man is standing up in front of an educated audience, purporting himself to be an expert on metaphors. At the beginning of his talk, he shows a slide that misses the definition of metaphor. How would an astronomer be received if he started out with a slide which labels the moon as a planet. Saying "you know what he meant" just doesn't cut it.

  • @Loraguy

    If it uses the words like or as it is a simile, that is the only difference between the two. Life is like a box of chocolates, thats a simile. Life is a box of chocolates would be a metaphor. They serve the same purpose, the only thing that separates them are those two words. The use of the words screwdriver and hammer have no weight to the distinction of whether it is a simile or metaphor.

  • No kidding, Ringo!

    If you had read the entire thread closely, you would have known that the dispute was over the fact that "Her lips are like a volcano..." is a simile, and not a metaphor! Everything since has just been me trying to explain this to various responders. The entire "screwdriver/hammer" thing is a metaphor for "simile/metaphor".

  • Lol. You're so stuck in your grammatic definitions, what you learned in first grade. It's scary. Like Christian fundamentalist or Muslim extremist who look at the world through what their preacher tells them,

  • Really, it's like you insisting god actually made the world in 6 days, because the Bible said so.

  • The entire "screwdriver/hammer" thing is a metaphor for "simile/metaphor" <-- Oh my. you just called an analogy a metaphor. what will your first grade english teacher say about this? she didnt tell you about the linguistic metaphor. so analogy shouldn't be metaphor.

  • I give up on Loraguy. He's stuck on the first-grade grammatic definitions of simile nd metaphor. It's sad that the broader, linguistic concepts are beyond him.

  • There is no room for disagreement or discussion. There is no gray area. Any comparison that uses the word "like" is not a metaphor. You can belittle me or insult me. You can attempt to obfuscate the issue all you want, but the definitions of words are not negotiable; they are what they are.

  • Outside your first grade textbooks which say metaphor does not have 'like' or 'as', there are other textbooks and and dictionaries that say analogy, hyperbole, simile, allegory, etc., are forms of metaphor. My 20 year old dictionary says that. Where did you get yours?

  • Oxford University

  • Bu there could only be one Bible, err, I mean real dictionary! And it has to be yours!

  • Ok, you win. A million thumbs up. Other comments are about the ideas and concepts, and I'm arguing about definitions.

  • it's a simile.

  • Loved it! Thank you!!

  • this one is okay, I wish more people would have already given this one the thought they should've.

  • 6 metaphors a minute? 0_o

    I guess that must've been a metaphor or something.

  • I doubt I say 6 metaphors a day.

    Maybe he means "6 metaphors a day" for all humans.

  • You already wrote one over there

  • He means 6 metaphors on average per minute during uninterrupted speaking, for the average person.

  • bear in mind that phrases such as "bear in mind" are metaphors, see what I mean?

    oh yeah, you can't "see what I mean," it's just a metaphor.

  • interesting, i liked this one

  • This talk was just a bunch of basic stuff you'd learn in intro psych or ling class. He did a very poor job of explaining why metaphor is something worth studying. Also, he mispronounced "Stroop."

  • what is "ling class"?

  • Gosh, this was very basic wasn't it? I also love how all his Elvis jokes fell flat on their arse!

  • I hope he isn't talking about a "collective unconscious" here. Metaphors are an abstraction. They are as useful as the notions they represent and are eventually outdated. They are not universal nor cross-cultural.

  • @jimgauth Metaphors are the opposite of abstraction. You are trying to make something abstract, such as "love" into something concrete, such as comparing it to a flower etc.

    And they could be universal, as fundamental language rules are. We all have evolved the same brain.

  • quathar, Julian Jaynes exquisitely exposited the metaphor as the evolutionary mechanism for consciousness in 1976. I'm not saying I entirely disagree with Geary, I'm just saying that metaphors also evolve and become extinct. We must not interpret anachronistic metaphors with modern lenses.

  • I think you could get away with saying that Metaphors are the collective unconscious of cultural groups.

    On a larger stage though, even a species wide collective unconscious contains metaphor. For example, everyone experiences mother's milk.

    Hell, i guess all mammals do.

    Also the fear of animals larger than yourself is common to many species.

    It all seems related, but it may be needlessly watering down the definition of collective unconscious and/or metaphor.

  • I cannot live without metaphors.

  • I like it ,,,, I feel a T-shirt moment coming on...

  • WHAT IS A BEZEL?

  • @devourerofbabies

    The ring around the watch face.

  • That watch at the end is worth thousands of dollars. Around $50,000 is my guess

  • That may be the price tag on it. It certainly isn't *worth* that much. :P

  • Hmm, nobody laughed when he said Elvis. Interesting.

  • Well, it wasn't funny :-P

    I could have forced a laugh, but audiences tend not to do that.

  • As soon as he started delaying, the whole audience knew he was preparing to slap them with a name outof left field.

    It's an overused technique.

  • TED talks is like porno to the mind

  • mind fuck

  • one star: too short!

  • Enlightening talk, and I for one didn't actually know that the standard translation of 'cogito ergo sum' was that misleading. "I/we shake things up, therefore I/we am" gives it a whole new depth.

    I'm going to get that saying on a T-shirt.

    Cogito ergo sum

  • @piotrezzz Sadly, that translation is misleading. Descartes originally wrote the phrase in French as "Je pense donc je suis" which just translates to the well known "I think therefore I am"... he only later formulated the phrase in Latin.

    Interesting still, but a lot of people are going to be casually spreading misinformation after this talk lol

  • I was only saying, that "we shake things up .. " gives it a better ... "feel".

    Optimally you would make it to sentences;

    I think, therefore I am

    I shake things up, therefore I live.

    :)

    With the first "I" being the intellectual I, and the latter being the physical I.

    I intellectually like to separate the two in a kind of Jung-ish fashion. But the distinction doesn't exist in the language, where "I" encompasses the whole

  • Metaphor is useful if used as a straight no nonsense analogy, an analogy one is able to interface difficult to understand ideas and concepts in simplistic accessible terms but without coloring and biasing the original concept with nothing more or less than its functional purpose. I would consider metaphorical 'hyperbole' for instance a coloration and bias that goes beyond communicating a functional purpose of a concept, thus a distortion that has no practical application.

  • Hey TED, where's the really excellent awesome stuff?

  • This Tedtalk awakened me to the wonder of Metaphors!

  • the end was epic

  • after listening to this, i realize ive been taking the "elvis the king" thing too literally. :P

  • al gore is a hypocrite -he owns a house that emits the amount of carbon dioxide of a small country!

  • a small country called algoria.

  • if penguins are so smart, why do they live in igloos?

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  • no u

  • @roidroid first of all penguins don't live in igloos and besides I don't know how that connects with Al Gore's estate, unless you're saying why do people live in houses?

  • Al Gore's estate has absolutely nothing to do with this TED talk

  • @roidroid

    they don't, they live in zoos. And the next time u go to visit them, i suggest you check out the fruit bats.

  • Penguins in Igloos is an analogy to the topic of Al Gore's Estate.

    Both topics entirely unrelated to this video, or eachother. The reader is left wondering "Wait... why is that guy suddenly talking about penguins. Did i miss something?".

    Much like everyone is already wondering "wait... why is that guy suddenly talking about Al Gore's estate. Did we miss something?"

  • @roidroid oh sorry, i assumed that you would assume i was smarter than needing an explanation for your references given my references.

  • you havn't given me anything indicating that, no.

  • V. S. Ramachandran's TED Talk "Journey to the Center of the Mind" covered most of this. Steven Pinker also covers much of this.

  • YES ! ! ! ! ! ! Most wounderful talk. You guys...... LOOK AT IT ! ! ! Sorry for hte caps, but i realy must scream this out... Amazing talk.. I promise.

  • Memes = a modified remix of historically ingrained metaphors?

  • Nice

  • It's very simple to do and yet it makes language more interesting.

  • VERY VERY NICE

  • also fell like a brick is simile

  • simile is just a variety of metaphor, you know.

  • well if your gunna get technical about it ,,lets try and be specific.

  • technically speaking, in 'all shook up' when elvis sings her lips are like a volcano... that's a simile not a metaphor

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  • no, that's a simile

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  • Lots of facts, but lacking inspiration.

  • Wow...with insights like this I can just go ahead and drop outta school! Yeah, no credit to the psychologists who came up with this stuff, some of this could have come from Pinker too.

  • This guy gave no credit to Vilayanur Ramachandran.

  • yeah i was going to say haha 'nice rip off Ramachandran'

  • 6 metaphors a minute huh?

    well ain't that a bitch ;)

  • @sheepwshotguns Well shit...aren't you clever....can I five stars that comment?

  • Beautiful video essay

  • Wow, this talk has me all shook up!! :-D

  • a metaphor its so powerful that can change lives. hard work make heaven...

    hard work destroy the body...

    hard work grow the soul...

    live its about fun... live its about god... if god make you and you love good you need to care about yourself more...

  • @tenisplayer

    Except god is just a hypothesis as it has no evidence.

  • @tenisplayer wtf are you talking about .....aaaaa it hurts the brain to read your drible

  • @tenisplayer

    Huh?

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  • mind=blown

    metaphorically speaking of course

  • what kind of presentation tool does he use??? It's like zooming in and out. Like a big map....

    does anyone know?

  • i believe he's using Prezi

    its quite cool, i had a prof use it once

  • after hearing this talk on metaphors, i shat a pineapple.

  • Wonderful!!

    This was well worth the listen and look

  • Great talk

  • In the first few minutes he was just telling me what I already know...

    Then things got interesting :D

  • He has really interesting things to say, but he does not express them really well.

    Good speech, though.

  • that's not elvis, that's mostly his songwriters

  • As man came from star dust, the words gained new meaning when Elvis sung them. Sorry =p

  • @NewgroundsOwnSBB

    It is not even his songwriters, it is lyrics in a song. ;)

  • the whole presentation was a metaphor.

  • this reminds me of a light blue flamingo

  • Your primary and defining characteristic is that of a hounddog, namely shedding tears all the time, as a response to an emotional state.

  • As if Elvis actually understood poems

  • Elvis became the poems and perhaps he was unable to understand himself.

  • fantastic talk

  • I expected a dull talk, I was pleasantly surprised.

  • metaPHORS

  • smart :D like it

  • its not metaphores its a perception

  • perception is based on metaphor

  • amazing

  • heheh xD

    starts boring, but the geometry was more interested, i recognized some of his questions, heard them before

  • I love metaphores

  • metaphors love you too