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Maja Niestrój
PhD Candidate, Opole University
[email protected]
If the philosophers are so smart: the narrative of economic crisis
(Handout - 16.09.2014; all comments very welcome)
In my speech I address one main question: is the phrase “global economic crisis” a metaphor?
The posed question provokes two further ones: what is a metaphor? And is the economic
crisis also a metaphoric expression?
The metaphor has been identified as the description of something by means of words and
expressions, which are primarily and conventionally ascribed to the description of something
else – a thing, phenomenon, activity. When we appeal to metaphor, we start to talk about two
things at once; two different and disparate subject matters which linked give us an enriched
effect. For my purposes I supplement this conviction with the conceptual understandings of
metaphor, introduced in 1980 (in the eighties) and constantly developed since then by Lakoff
and Johnson. According to Lakoff and Johnson and many of their followers metaphors are
essential for human thinking, shaping it and being deeply rooted in fundamental structures of
everyday language. Moreover, the source for them is our direct, partly bodily experience.
Metaphors connect and compare the source domain of literal, everyday experiences (in other
words, the conceptual domain from which we draw metaphorical expressions) to a target
domain with the aim of enlarging and enhancing understanding of that target domain. As
such metaphors are also an important part of science – metaphorical reasoning is at the very
core of what scientists do when they gather observations, design experiments, make
discoveries, formulate theories and models, as well as when they communicate their results.
Source domain - crisis
dangerous and unstable situation; affecting
individual, groups or communities, or
__whole society; bring negative changes;
occurs abruptly without any or with less
warning
Target domain – empirical data
real GDP per capita, real house prices and
real equity prices fall; unemployment rise,
increase in public debt and its imbalance to
current account
Is “global economic crisis” metaphor? when it comes to global crises in economics, even the
simplest questions have very complicated answers. The ideas that seem at first glance to be
plainly literal actually turn out to be metaphorical in nature. Hence, under “global”, there is as
are hidden: statistics, theoretical theories along with its numerical predictions, and global
imbalances.
Analogical example, examined in detail by Brown, is the “global warming”. Both –
understanding of the changes in economy and the climate changes, involves the analysis and
the integration of ideas from a variety of sources and judgements about how the parts fit
together to form a coherent whole. Because of the potential enormous consequences which
the global crisis (warming) can cause, people through the world, have a stake in what science
has to say, but then reinterpret the shared scientific results referring to the already known
terms and daily experiences. Metaphorical expressions, especially those appearing in
scientific context, where they play a role, are shacked together (like Bonds martini), which
makes phrases like “global economic crisis” a tool of persuasion in public discussion.
Literature:
Brown, Theodore. Making Truth. Metaphor in Science. University of Illinois Press. Illinois
2008.
Joyce, Joseph P. The IMF and Global Financial Crises. Phoenix Rising? Cambridge
University Press. Cambridge – New York – Melbourne – Madrid - Cape Town – Singapore –
Sao Paulo – Delhi – Mexico City 2013.
McCloskey, Deirdre. If You’re So Smart: the Narrative of Economic Expertise, University
of Chicago Press. Chicago 1990.
McCloskey, Deirdre. Bourgeois Dignity: Why Economics Can't Explain the Modern World,
The University of Chicago Press, Chicago 2010.
Lakoff, George & Johnson, Mark. Metaphors We Live By. University of Chicago Press.
Chicago 2003 (2nd Edition).
Obstfeld, Maurice (ed.). Global Economic Crisis. Impacts, Transmission and Recovery.
Edward Elgar Publishing. Cheltenham – Northampton 2012.
Schiek, Dagmar (ed.). The EU Economic and Social Model in the Global Crisis. Series:
Studies in Modern Law and Policy. Ashgate Publishing. Farnham – Burlington 2013.
Shin, Jang-Sup. The Global Financial Crisis and the Korean Economy. Routledge. London –
New York 2014.
Tsoukalis, Loukas. The shattering of illusions – And what next? Journal of Common Market
Studies 49 (1) 2011, 19-44.