%0 Book %1 Otis.2001 %A Otis, Laura %B Preprint %C Berlin %D 2001 %K 19.-Jahrhundert Biologie Metapher Netz Physik Physiologie %T The Metaphoric Circuit: Organic and Technological Communication in the Nineteenth Century / The Other End of the Wire: Uncertainties of Organic an Telegraphic Communication %V 184 %X In a public lecture in 1851, Emil DuBois--Reymond proposed that the wonder of our time, electrical telegraphy, was long ago modeled in the animal machine. But the similarity between the two apparatus, the nervous system and the electric telegraph, has a much deeper foundation. It is more than similarity; it is a kinship between the two, an agreement not merely of the effects, but also perhaps of the causes. ^1 In 1851 the telegraph and the nervous system appeared to be doing the same things and for the same reasons. Their common purpose was the transmission of information, and they both conveyed this information as alterations in electrical signals. By calling the nervous system a "model" for the telegraph, DuBois--Reymond suggested that organic communications systems offered solutions to problems encountered by technological ones. In the same decade, however, Claude Bernard remained skeptical about the epistemological value of metaphor. From the classical notion of nervous fluid to the more recent ones of animal spirits and animal electricity, he pointed out, people's "knowledge" of the nervous system had consisted largely of a series of comparisons, "the expression of a way of seeing meant to explain the facts." ^2 Priding himself on his empiricism, Bernard mistrusted analogy as a means of constructing knowledge. Does one know more or less about something, if one asserts that it is like something else? What exactly is the relationship between metaphor and knowledge?

@book{Otis.2001, abstract = {In a public lecture in 1851, Emil DuBois--Reymond proposed that the wonder of our time, electrical telegraphy, was long ago modeled in the animal machine. But the similarity between the two apparatus, the nervous system and the electric telegraph, has a much deeper foundation. It is more than similarity; it is a kinship between the two, an agreement not merely of the effects, but also perhaps of the causes. ^1 In 1851 the telegraph and the nervous system appeared to be doing the same things and for the same reasons. Their common purpose was the transmission of information, and they both conveyed this information as alterations in electrical signals. By calling the nervous system a "model" for the telegraph, DuBois--Reymond suggested that organic communications systems offered solutions to problems encountered by technological ones. In the same decade, however, Claude Bernard remained skeptical about the epistemological value of metaphor. From the classical notion of nervous fluid to the more recent ones of animal spirits and animal electricity, he pointed out, people's "knowledge" of the nervous system had consisted largely of a series of comparisons, "the expression of a way of seeing meant to explain the facts." ^2 Priding himself on his empiricism, Bernard mistrusted analogy as a means of constructing knowledge. Does one know more or less about something, if one asserts that it is like something else? What exactly is the relationship between metaphor and knowledge?}, added-at = {2007-12-25T11:08:40.000+0100}, address = {Berlin}, author = {Otis, Laura}, biburl = {https://www.bibsonomy.org/bibtex/237065f8897b1d0a05bdb30d0bac870f4/stromgeist}, description = {import}, institution = {Max--Planck--Institut f{\"u}r Wissenschaftsgeschichte}, interhash = {5c032472afe8bc0b04058e5698f615a7}, intrahash = {37065f8897b1d0a05bdb30d0bac870f4}, keywords = {19.-Jahrhundert Biologie Metapher Netz Physik Physiologie}, price = {kart.}, series = {Preprint}, timestamp = {2007-12-25T11:08:48.000+0100}, title = {The Metaphoric Circuit: Organic and Technological Communication in the Nineteenth Century / The Other End of the Wire: Uncertainties of Organic an Telegraphic Communication}, volume = 184, year = 2001 }