Dear Francois,

What you seem to ask for isn’t possible.  

You wrote, "But Klaus strongly warned us reminding us that common language is misleading. Telling us perhaps that at University level we shoudn't be using common language to characterize tools as above. TOOLS DO NOT POSSESS AGENCY EVEN BY PROCURATION. Should we then devise up another way to characterize tools that we design? No longer using ACTIVE metaphors as above??”

Human beings communicate through language. Language itself is built, in great part, using metaphors. At university and everywhere else, we communicate using common language. The greatest works of scholarship use the same common language that we use when we cook dinner or talk on the phone. The subject and part of the vocabulary may differ by topic, but not the basic structure and nature of language. 

Some fields — such as physics or mathematics — work in numbers, but even the great thinkers in those fields often use common language to discuss their work with one another, sometimes adding images or diagrams to do so.

Unless we plan to stop being human, we need language to share our ideas with other human beings.

The point of the thread is to use language carefully. This includes choosing appropriate metaphors while avoiding problematic concepts. 

The statement “tools do not possess agency” is clear and simple. It doesn’t involve metaphors. When we use a metaphor to describe the properties or attributes of a tool, it’s easy enough to remember that a tool may be described in terms of its functions and qualities without ascribing agency to that tool.

There is also an issue to remember that I can’t really describe here without a great deal more care than I can give it. Words have many meanings. Some of those meanings are metaphorical, while other meanings of the same word may simply be technical. To say that a wall supports a roof is not a metaphor. 

We use the term “support” in different ways. When we say, “the wall supports the roof,” we are describing something. For a builder, it is a technical description. For a political reporter who uses the word support in different ways, it may be a metaphor — or, because it is an early and common use, it may also be another kind of description.

When we say, “Michelle Obama supports Joe Biden for president,” we are using the word support in a different way. To a political reporter, the word support is a description for political support. In this case, it means that a widely admired public figure states her advocacy for the candidate whom she believes to be best suited for the office of president in the forthcoming election. I could probably unpack that further, more deeply and more carefully, but I believe it safe to assume that everyone who subscribes to the list knows what the sentence means. To a builder or a construction engineer, it may still be a metaphor. 

I’m not doing very well in describing my ideas here — this deserves greater thought, and it requires time I don’t have. What is clear is that many words can be used in several ways, some descriptive, some metaphoric. Some words are used in a specific way within a specific context. Those words function one way in one context as contrasted with the way they function in another context.

This is why the Oxford English Dictionary provides usage exemplars. Some usages change over time. And some words retain multiple forms of usage at the same time, depending on context.

I apologise for any lack of clarity. To be human is to use language. Languaging — using language — is one of the qualities that makes us human. If we use language, we are always engaged in a struggle between common language and specialised usages. Even when we use common language, we often struggle to be clear and understandable by choosing our words carefully and writing well. Metaphors can assist us or defeat us, depending on how well we choose them. 

Metaphors can even support us in the quest for communication. When a metaphor supports me, it doesn’t mean that I am a roof beam or a candidate for office. It may, however, pump qualities into me.  

Yours,

Ken

Ken Friedman, Ph.D., D.Sc. (hc), FDRS | Editor-in-Chief | 设计 She Ji. The Journal of Design, Economics, and Innovation | Published by Tongji University in Cooperation with Elsevier | URL: http://www.journals.elsevier.com/she-ji-the-journal-of-design-economics-and-innovation/

Chair Professor of Design Innovation Studies | College of Design and Innovation | Tongji University | Shanghai, China ||| Visiting Professor | Faculty of Engineering | Lund University ||| Email  [log in to unmask] | Academia https://tongji.academia.edu/KenFriedman | D&I http://tjdi.tongji.edu.cn 



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