Theories Are Constructed Objects

Transfers

Theories are things that people make. This metaphor is broader than THEORIES ARE BUILDINGS — it maps not just architectural construction but general fabrication onto intellectual work. The Master Metaphor List (Lakoff, Espenson & Schwartz 1991) distinguishes it from the more specific building variant because it emphasizes the act of construction itself rather than the properties of the resulting structure.

Key structural parallels:

• Raw materials — facts, observations, and data are the raw materials from which theories are constructed. “She built the theory from empirical data.” “The evidence is the raw material for any explanation.” The metaphor makes a clear distinction between pre-theoretical inputs (materials) and the finished intellectual product (the constructed object), implying that data exists independently of theory.
• Construction process — theory-making is labor. “He spent years constructing the framework.” “They assembled the argument piece by piece.” The metaphor makes intellectual work feel physical, sequential, and effortful. It also implies that the work requires skill — a poorly constructed theory, like a poorly made object, will fall apart.
• Tools — logic, methodology, and analytical techniques are tools. “Statistical analysis is a tool for constructing explanations.” “She used game theory as a tool for understanding cooperation.” The metaphor makes methods feel like implements — separable from the user and from the product, applicable to different materials.
• Assembly and disassembly — theories can be taken apart. “Let me deconstruct that argument.” “He dismantled her thesis point by point.” Constructed objects are composed of discrete parts joined together, and the metaphor imports this modularity: you can separate the components, examine them individually, and judge whether they fit together properly.
• Craftsmanship — the quality of construction matters. “An elegantly constructed theory.” “A crude, hastily assembled hypothesis.” The metaphor introduces an aesthetic and a work ethic into intellectual evaluation: good theories are well-crafted, and the quality of the craftsmanship is visible in the product.
• Artificiality — constructed objects are human-made, not natural. “That’s a theoretical construct.” “Social constructionism” takes this literally: social reality is constructed, not discovered. The metaphor contains within it the seed of anti-realism — if theories are constructed, they might be constructed differently.

Limits

• The metaphor overstates human agency — constructed objects exist because someone decided to make them. But many theoretical insights are not planned; they emerge from unexpected observations, failed experiments, and accidental discoveries. The construction metaphor makes all intellectual products look intentional, obscuring the role of serendipity, error, and surprise in scientific progress.
• Materials are not independent of construction — in physical construction, the raw materials exist before the builder arrives. In theory-making, what counts as “data” is often determined by the theory itself. Observations are theory-laden. The construction metaphor assumes a clean separation between input and output that does not exist in intellectual work.
• Disassembly is not deconstruction — taking apart a physical object returns you to the original components. Taking apart a theory does not return you to pre-theoretical observations. “Deconstructing an argument” sounds like reverse engineering, but intellectual analysis transforms the thing being analyzed. The metaphor makes criticism look more surgical and reversible than it actually is.
• The metaphor hides the constructed nature of the metaphor — “construct” is so deeply embedded in intellectual vocabulary that we forget it is a metaphor at all. When social constructionists say that gender is “constructed,” they are using a metaphor to argue that something is metaphorical. The self-referential quality makes the metaphor unusually difficult to examine.
• Durability is assumed — constructed objects are meant to last. The metaphor imports an expectation of permanence that does not match the provisional character of most scientific theories. A theory that is “well-constructed” sounds like it should endure, but good science requires willingness to demolish even well-crafted theoretical structures.

Expressions

• “She constructed a careful argument” — intellectual work as fabrication (Lakoff, Espenson & Schwartz 1991)
• “The theory is well-constructed” — intellectual quality as build quality (common academic usage)
• “Let me deconstruct that claim” — critical analysis as disassembly
• “He assembled the evidence into a coherent framework” — synthesis as physical assembly
• “A theoretical construct” — an intellectual entity explicitly named as something made (psychology and social science convention)
• “That argument is falling apart” — intellectual failure as physical disintegration
• “The tools of analysis” — methods as implements used in construction
• “They pieced together an explanation” — synthesis from fragments as assembly

Origin Story

The metaphor is cataloged in the Master Metaphor List (Lakoff, Espenson & Schwartz 1991) alongside the more specific THEORIES ARE BUILDINGS. The distinction matters: the building metaphor emphasizes architectural properties (foundations, frameworks, structural integrity), while the constructed-objects metaphor emphasizes the act and process of making. The word “construct” itself became a technical term in psychology and social science during the twentieth century — “psychological construct,” “social construct” — carrying the metaphor’s implication that these entities are human-made rather than discovered.

The metaphor connects to broader debates in philosophy of science about realism and anti-realism. If theories are constructed, the question arises: constructed by whom, from what, and could they have been constructed differently? Social constructionism (Berger & Luckmann 1966) takes the construction metaphor seriously as a philosophical position, arguing that much of what appears natural or given is actually fabricated through social processes.

References

• Lakoff, G., Espenson, J. & Schwartz, A. Master Metaphor List (1991), “Theories Are Constructed Objects”
• Lakoff, G. & Johnson, M. Metaphors We Live By (1980), Chapters 3-4
• Berger, P.L. & Luckmann, T. The Social Construction of Reality (1966) — the construction metaphor as a sociological framework
• Hacking, I. The Social Construction of What? (1999) — philosophical analysis of what “construction” means when applied to knowledge