[lbo-talk] Philip Mirowski - Social Physicist

[Vincent Clarke]

> ^^^^^
> CB: Well, in Levi-Strauss's sense, structures _are_ metaphors.
> Levi-Strauss's signification is " a is to be as c is to d". or
> a:b::c:d.
>
> So, in a mythical island society,  male:female::seaside:
> islandside
> would be a structue of analogies that can be traced through lots of
> aspects of the whole culture.
>

Shit, sorry... I missed that one. It's actually important because you
confuse these two things (structure and metphor; universal and particular)
all the way through your argument.

The structure in this incidence is (a) binary (male:female -
seaside:island-side) and (b) reflexive (as in, it can observe itself at work
- in the guise of the anthropologist - some argue this is polluting). This
is the Universal at work.

The metaphor is the singular case (male is to seaside as female is to
island-side).

This is the confusion you're stumbling on times and again.

What Levi-Strauss and the Structuralists argue that metaphor and structure
are inhernetly linked - but structure (binary, tertiary etc) comes first.
Computer scientists would argue the same thing. Binary first - then code.

NB: my main response was posted prior to this and is awaiting moderation
because its too long - sorry if this comes up first.