Philosophy

Metaphors originating from philosophical traditions — epistemology, ontology, ethics, and logic.

Entries (222)

• A Chance to Cut Is a Chance to Cure metaphor
• A Hard Row to Hoe metaphor
• Accidental Complexity metaphor
• Actions Are Self-Propelled Motions metaphor
• Against the Grain metaphor
• AI Is a Prosthesis metaphor
• AI Is a Tool metaphor
• AI Is an Agent metaphor
• AI Is an Oracle metaphor
• Alignment Is Physical Alignment metaphor
• All Bleeding Stops metaphor
• Amor Fati paradigm
• Argument from Authority mental-model
• Art Is a Battle, a Mill That Grinds metaphor
• Art Is Making Something Better Without Knowing What Better Is paradigm
• Art Is Never Finished, Only Abandoned mental-model
• Attributes Are Entities metaphor
• Banach-Tarski Paradox mental-model
• Beliefs Are Beings with a Life Cycle metaphor
• Beliefs Are Fashions metaphor
• Beliefs Are Guides metaphor
• Beliefs Are Locations metaphor
• Beliefs Are Love Objects metaphor
• Beliefs Are Possessions metaphor
• Bicycle for the Mind metaphor
• Brave New World Is Technological Control metaphor
• Categories Are Containers metaphor
• Causal Precedence Is Temporal Precedence metaphor
• Causation Is Commercial Transaction metaphor
• Causation Is Control Over An Entity Relative To A Location metaphor
• Causation Is Control Over An Object Relative To A Possessor metaphor
• Causation Is Control Over Relative Location metaphor
• Causes And Effects Are Linked Objects metaphor
• Causes Are Forces metaphor
• Character Is a Wax Seal metaphor
• Circle of Competence mental-model
• Coherent Is Aligned metaphor
• Compliance Is Adherence metaphor
• Conducting Research Is Solving a Puzzle metaphor
• Courage Is Strength metaphor
• Cryonics Is Death Deferral metaphor
• Dangerous Beliefs Are Contagious Diseases metaphor
• Death Is a Journey metaphor
• Death Is Departure metaphor
• Deep Roots Are Not Reached by Frost metaphor
• Deep Space Is the Unknown Frontier metaphor
• Dichotomy of Control mental-model
• Difficult Subjects Are Adversaries metaphor
• Difficulties Are Impediments to Motion metaphor
• Disparity Is Change metaphor
• Do As Much Nothing As Possible metaphor
• Duck Typing metaphor
• Event Structure (Location Case) metaphor
• Existence Is A Location metaphor
• Existence Is An Object metaphor
• Existence Is Having A Form metaphor
• Existence Is Life metaphor
• Existence Is Visibility metaphor
• External Appearance Is A Cover metaphor
• External Conditions Are Climate metaphor
• Facts Are Points metaphor
• Falsification mental-model
• Feed the Soil, Not the Plant metaphor
• Fermi's Paradox paradigm
• First-Principles Thinking mental-model
• Force Is a Substance Contained in Affecting Causes metaphor
• Good Art Carries High Density of Choice mental-model
• Good Is Up; Bad Is Down metaphor
• Grok Is Deep Understanding metaphor
• Halting Problem paradigm
• Hilbert's Hotel mental-model
• Honeybee Is Ideal Scientist archetype
• Ideas Are Fashions metaphor
• Ideas Are Light-Sources metaphor
• Ideas Are Objects metaphor
• Ideas Are Resources metaphor
• Idols of the Cave mental-model
• Idols of the Marketplace mental-model
• Idols of the Theatre metaphor
• Idols of the Tribe mental-model
• Impressions Are Visitors at the Door metaphor
• Incompleteness paradigm
• Infinite Monkey Theorem metaphor
• Inversion mental-model
• Knotty Problem metaphor
• Knowing Is Seeing metaphor
• Koan metaphor
• Latticework of Mental Models mental-model
• Let Justice Be Done Though the Heavens Fall paradigm
• Letter vs. Spirit of the Law metaphor
• Life Is a Ball Game metaphor
• Life Is a Banquet metaphor
• Life Is a Container metaphor
• Life Is a Gambling Game metaphor
• Life Is a Game of Dice metaphor
• Life Is a Journey metaphor
• Life Is a Play metaphor
• Life Is a Story metaphor
• Logic Is Gravity metaphor
• Logical Relations Are Causal Relations metaphor
• Long-Term Purposeful Activity Is a Journey metaphor
• Long-Term Purposeful Change Is a Journey metaphor
• Man with a Hammer mental-model
• Manure Is the Farmer's Gold metaphor
• Map-Territory Problem metaphor
• Margin of Safety mental-model
• Memento Mori mental-model
• Model Outputs Are Prophecies metaphor
• Moral Accounting metaphor
• Morality Is Accounting metaphor
• Morality Is Cleanliness metaphor
• Morality Is Purity metaphor
• Morality Is Straightness metaphor
• Nation Is a Family metaphor
• Nation Is a Person metaphor
• Necessity Knows No Law mental-model
• Negative Visualization mental-model
• Never Let the Sun Set on Undrained Pus metaphor
• No One Gives What They Do Not Have mental-model
• Null Pointer metaphor
• Obligations Are Containers metaphor
• Obligations Are Forces metaphor
• Obligations Are Possessions metaphor
• Obtain a Yield mental-model
• Occam's Razor mental-model
• Opportunity Cost mental-model
• Organization Is Physical Structure metaphor
• Paperclip Maximizer Is Alignment Failure mental-model
• Patina metaphor
• Perception Is Reception metaphor
• Perception Is Shape Recognition metaphor
• Philosophy Is Medicine metaphor
• Piecemeal Growth metaphor
• Praise the Ripe Field, Not the Green Corn metaphor
• Premeditatio Malorum mental-model
• Prime Directive Is Non-Interference metaphor
• Proof by Construction paradigm
• Proof by Contradiction paradigm
• Properties Are Possessions metaphor
• Psychohistory Is Predictive Social Science mental-model
• Purposes Are Desired Objects metaphor
• Purposes Are Destinations metaphor
• Quis Custodiet Ipsos Custodes mental-model
• Rational Is Up; Emotional Is Down metaphor
• Read the Grain metaphor
• Replicant Is Artificial Person metaphor
• Rough Around the Edges metaphor
• Second-Order Thinking mental-model
• Seeing Is Touching, Eyes Are Limbs metaphor
• Side Effects metaphor
• Similarity Is Closeness metaphor
• Singularity Is Technological Transcendence metaphor
• Sisyphean Task metaphor
• Sky and Weather metaphor
• Slippery Slope metaphor
• Social Accounting metaphor
• Society Is a Body metaphor
• Software Habitability metaphor
• Sow Wild Oats metaphor
• Spherical Cow metaphor
• States Are Locations metaphor
• Strange Loop mental-model
• Straw Man metaphor
• Sympatheia mental-model
• Terroir mental-model
• The Ant Is the Pure Empiricist archetype
• The Archer metaphor
• The Body Is a Container for the Self metaphor
• The Conduit Metaphor metaphor
• The Dog Tied to the Cart metaphor
• The Event Structure Metaphorical System metaphor
• The Great Chain of Being archetype
• The Helmsman metaphor
• The Internet Is a Mine metaphor
• The Law Is Harsh but It Is the Law paradigm
• The Map Is Not the Territory mental-model
• The Matrix Is Hidden Reality metaphor
• The Mind Is a Body metaphor
• The Mind Is a Citadel metaphor
• The Mind Is a Jar of Water metaphor
• The Obstacle Is the Way paradigm
• The Painting Replaces Your Ideas with Its Ideas metaphor
• The Promontory metaphor
• The Quality Without a Name metaphor
• The Spider Is the Pure Rationalist archetype
• The Wrestler metaphor
• Theoretical Debate Is Competition metaphor
• Theories Are Beings with Life Cycles metaphor
• Theories Are Buildings metaphor
• Theories Are Cloth metaphor
• Theories Are Constructed Objects metaphor
• Theories Are Covers for the Facts metaphor
• Theories Are People metaphor
• Time Is a Changer metaphor
• Time Is a Container metaphor
• Time Is a Landscape We Move Through metaphor
• Time Is a Moving Object metaphor
• Time Is a Pursuer metaphor
• Time Is a Resource metaphor
• Time Is a River metaphor
• Time Is Money metaphor
• Time Is Motion metaphor
• Time Is Stationary and We Move Through It metaphor
• Time Travel Is Historical Counterfactual metaphor
• Tincture of Time metaphor
• Understanding Is Grasping metaphor
• Understanding Is Seeing metaphor
• Unknown Is Up; Known Is Down metaphor
• Uploading Is Digital Immortality metaphor
• View from Above mental-model
• Virtue Is the Art of Living metaphor
• Virtue Is Up; Depravity Is Down metaphor
• Wabi-Sabi in Woodwork paradigm
• We Are Puppets on Strings metaphor
• Well-Being Is Wealth metaphor
• Where There Is a Right, There Is a Remedy mental-model
• Work Should Look Easy, However Elaborate mental-model
• Worse Is Better paradigm
• Yin and Yang metaphor
• You Can't Plow a Field by Turning It Over in Your Mind metaphor
• You Reap What You Sow metaphor
• Zeno's Paradox mental-model