Images, morphology and metaphors in biomedical research

Abstract

Some of the key discoveries of the last two centuries of biomedical research can be represented through a sequence of influential images that were originally powerful metaphors. Metaphor, as a model of proposition that includes the two extreme types of diaphor and epiphor, can serve the purpose of representing knowledge in a dynamic way. Metaphors are images, and therefore they have an intrinsic morphological component but of a special kind: ambiguous. The idea, originally suggested by Wittgenstein and then elaborated by MacCormac and Rosch, that all objects corresponding to the word chair are not a fixed prototype is crucial to understand how the model of abstraction of an essence from observable entities can be abandoned.

Keywords

• Ambigüedad, Investigación Biomédica
• Morfología
• Metáfora