Meeting the Absurd: Camus and the Communication Ethics of the Everyday

The metaphor of the absurd, as well as the work and thought of Albert Camus, has primarily served as a secondary resource within the communication discipline. This project contributes to the conversation about the absurd in an effort to further the study of communication ethics by placing Camus in the foreground. The metaphor of the absurd provides an opportunity to examine philosophical hermeneutics in relation to Camus\u27s insights. The work of Paul Ricoeur and Hans-Georg Gadamer, emphasizing the role of metaphor and how it connects the absurd as used by Camus to our current postmodern moment, provides the methodological framework for this project. While many differences exist between the historical moment of Camus and the contemporary postmodern moment, both represent a time in which there is no longer paradigmatic certainty. Through an exploration of Camus\u27s three cycles of work addressing absurdity, revolt, and judgment, this project firmly places Camus\u27s engagement within the context of the study of communication ethics. Through his implicit work as a philosopher of communication Camus provided an example of a person with deep ethical commitments who navigated through the chaos of a moment of metanarrative decline. In our own moment of narrative and virtue contention, Camus\u27s voice should again be heard as we seek to take communicative responsibility in an age of absurdity

Conceptual Metaphor in Meditation Discourse: An Analysis of the Spiritual Perspective

Meditation has spread beyond the frontiers of religion to go global in other areas of social practice, including secular and spiritual-but-not-religious contexts. Conceptual metaphor, as proposed by Lakoff (1993) has been described as a powerful mechanism to facilitate the communication of first-person experiences connected to religious and lay contemplative practice, including meditation and enlightenment, as reported in several studies. Despite the detachment of the spiritual-but-not-religious movement from other areas of practice, the question of how metaphor is used in discourse about meditation within this perspective has not been addressed. This paper investigates the role of conceptual metaphor in spiritual-but-not-religious meditation discourse through a bottom-up qualitative analysis of a corpus of talks about meditation given by three highly-recognized spiritual teachers. Results chart the topics that are addressed more frequently through metaphor in the corpus (metaphor target domains), describe the range of areas of experience (source domains) used to characterise metaphorically the three most frequent target domains (THOUGHT, THE PRESENT MOMENT, MEDITATOR), and discuss fundamental differences in non-deliberate and deliberate conceptual metaphor use with the help of a selection of examples from the corpus. The findings provide evidence of relevant metaphors used to model the experience and practice of meditation in spiritual-but-not-religious settings and how they are rendered in discourse. Comparisons with metaphorical models already identified in religious and secular discourse contexts are also established, with a special focus on the models that have been transferred from traditional religious meditation spheres to current contexts of social practice

Values education through the pursuit of knowledge; the significance of metaphor for key stage two children, with particular emphasis on religious education

The first section of the thesis provides an investigation of the theoretical background which has been influential for theories concerning the nature of childhood and the role of metaphor in the communication process. The analysis begins by examining the writings of Rousseau, moving to an investigation of the positivist movement and the significance of both for the work of Jean Plaget. The final chapter of the section provides discussion of theories of metaphor. It is shown how positivism has been influential in forming narrow perceptions which, by limiting definitions to those based on substitution theories, has obscured the wider significance of metaphor for thought and values formation. A new theory of metaphor is then presented. In the second section data is analysed which suggests the experiences and concerns of childhood do not differ significantly from those of adults: the difference is one of content, rather than variety. Basic metaphorical structures are found to underlie the way In which people - children and adults - reason in attempts both to understand and formulate values and knowledge. The significance of metaphorical mapping networks in thought processes is examined. The final chapter of the section provides data analysis which investigates children's ability to learn how to interpret and create novel metaphors, which can enrich their thinking and language beyond conventional usage. The significance of the theoretical background analysed in the opening section lies in the encouragement it gave to misleading assumptions concerning childhood and the learning process. Religious education in primary education is examined as an example of this, focusing on the work of Goldman which was based on Piagetian theory. His conclusions are examined critically and compared with analysis of data collected in the primary classroom. It is argued that Goldman accepted Plaget's theories uncritically and when he applied them to religious education, they contributed to serious underestimations being made of pupils' ability for learning-to understand the significance of religion for everyday life. Recommendations include the urgent need for a reassessment of expectations of primary school children's intellectual, creative capacity and the necessity of selecting lesson material which, whilst beginning with their dally concerns and interests, extends children’s thought and reflection beyond both

Metaphoric competence and communicative language ability

Recent developments in cognitive linguistics have highlighted the importance as well as the ubiquity of metaphor in language. Despite this, the ability of second language learners to use metaphors is often still not seen as a core ability. In this paper, we take a model of communicative competence that has been widely influential in both language teaching and language testing, namely Bachman (1990), and argue, giving a range of examples of language use and learner difficulty, that metaphoric competence has in fact an important role to play in all areas of communicative competence. In other words, it can contribute centrally to grammatical competence, textual competence, illocutionary competence, sociolinguistic competence, and strategic competence. Metaphor is thus highly relevant to second language learning, teaching and testing, from the earliest to the most advanced stages of learning

Language and Ideology: A role for scientific metaphor

A number of prominent popular science writers have recently argued for the active appropriation of scientific language in the formulation of modern ideologies and ethical systems. A critical examination of scientific narratives in light of contemporary theories of metaphor and relevance suggests that scientific language indeed harbors the same emotive potential that is traditionally ascribed to religious language, and can exhibit potent transformative effects in shaping human thought. Also highlighted through this approach are the challenges of constructing scientific metaphors that are generally meaningful, accurate, and ethically responsible

Metaphor. The good argument in science communication

The relation between metaphor and argumentation in science communication is becoming a crucial tool for critical metaphor studies. In this article, by means of a crossed analysis (epistemological, cognitive and linguistic), I focus especially on a peculiar dynamic of metaphor use in scientific communication showing opposite, paradoxical attitudes towards the use of metaphors, respectively, ubiquity vs. invisibility, inclination vs. resistance, deliberate vs. non-deliberate. In this way, an overall philosophical reflection about the underlying reasons for the ambivalence in the use of metaphor in scientific communication would be proposed and discussed

The price of admission: football players' sacrificial conceptions of career and health through metaphors of war, religion, and family

textWith the recent discovery of traumatic brain injuries developing in retired professional football players, this study seeks to explore players’ perceptions of their careers in the sport, and how this may reflect notions of personal health over the long-term. Current and former football players, athletic staff, and other members of the football community were interviewed with the goal of learning about the full trajectory of a football career. Using grounded metaphorical analysis to examine the interview data, our study found the use of metaphor by participants to be integral in players’ descriptions of their careers. Participants likened aspects of their careers to enduring a war, having a religious experience, and being part of a family unit. Long-term, post-career health implications are discussed in relation to players’ conceiving of their experiences through these metaphors, along with limitations of the study and directions for future research.Communication Studie

The role of metaphor in shaping the identity and agenda of the United Nations: the imagining of an international community and international threat

This article examines the representation of the United Nations in speeches delivered by its Secretary General. It focuses on the role of metaphor in constructing a common ‘imagining’ of international diplomacy and legitimising an international organisational identity. The SG legitimises the organisation, in part, through the delegitimisation of agents/actions/events constructed as threatening to the international community and to the well-being of mankind. It is a desire to combat the forces of menace or evil which are argued to motivate and determine the organisational agenda. This is predicated upon an international ideology of humanity in which difference is silenced and ‘working towards the common good’ is emphasised. This is exploited to rouse emotions and legitimise institutional power. Polarisation and antithesis are achieved through the employment of metaphors designed to enhance positive and negative evaluations. The article further points to the constitutive, persuasive and edifying power of topic and situationally-motivated metaphors in speech-making