Metaphors and visual knowledge: visualism and externalism

This essay proposes a visualist-externalist theory of metaphor grounded in visual knowledge and compositional emergence, claiming that visual metaphors are paradigmatic of metaphorical phenomena. I argue that metaphors comprise not two, but three components: source, target, and emergent properties. Against the internalist-conceptualist paradigm that treats metaphors as based on abstract mental mappings, I contend that metaphorical emergence arises from external compositions, visual inferences and perceptual engagements. Emergence is generated by fusion of elements within perceptible configurations and cannot be pre-specified or exhausted by conceptual schemes. Visual metaphors – ubiquitous in our homes, cities, art, everyday objects, and passing physiognomic perception – exemplify this structure most clearly, revealing our nature as visually oriented beings. Drawing on theories of ecological perception, material engagement, and visual and spatial cognition, I demonstrate that visual knowledge and attachment to form constitute metaphors more fundamentally than conceptual schemes. While recent cognition theories have moved toward more contextual and embodied accounts, they have not taken the full step necessary to grasp metaphor's essence as rooted in the visual sphere. Through examples ranging from passing metaphors to visual (and material), linguistic, and conceptual metaphors, I conclude that visual metaphors are not a subclass but the paradigmatic form of metaphor itself.