Metaphors in Action Humanities, Medicine and the Digital World (Springer Book)

Through a transdisciplinary lens, this book offers a unique description of how metaphors inform our conceptual system and shape our world accordingly. Metaphors in action means marking a break from conventional methodologies: observing metaphors as they operate reveals how conceptual mappings serve as interpretive tools, directing perception, limiting reasoning patterns, and either enabling or hindering comprehension in practical situations. This collection guides through an exploration of how metaphors exhibit consistency with the cultural contexts and value systems from which they emerge. We examine metaphor as a "semantic network", a framework that immediately suggests new pathways for generating alternative ontological possibilities. This book explores the role and significance of metaphors and the landscapes they shape in five disparate fields: philosophy, linguistics, law, health and digital technologies. This volume is an invaluable resource for students and researchers in philosophy, health sciences, psychology, and the digital humanities.

Brencio, R. De Biase (2026) (eds.), Metaphors in action. Humanities, medicine and the digital world, pp 173–190, Springer Nature, Cham, Metaphors in Action: Humanities, Medicine and the Digital World | Springer Nature Link

Table of contents:

Chapter 1, Metaphors in action. An introduction, Francesca Brencio
Section I: Metaphors in Philosophy, Linguistics and Law
Chapter 2, The miracle of metaphor. Attraction and impelence in the expressive and intellectual dynamic of the metaphor as estrangement and recognition, Cesar, Moreno Marquez
Chapter 3, Image energetics: metamorphosis and metaphors in Gaston Bachelard, Ivana Brigida D’Avanzo
Chapter 4, The Cognitive Value of Metaphors in the Semiotics of Charles S. Peirce, Rossella Saccoia
Chapter 5, Natorp’s Psychology and metaphor as possibilities of understanding consciousness, Mattia Papa
Chapter 6, A normative imagery. Legal metaphors between Islam and the West, Federico Lorenzo Ramaioli
Section II: Metaphors, Health and Digital Technologies
Chapter 7, Between the Visible and the Invisible. The Role of Metaphor in Dreaming, Valeria Bizzari, Giulio Caselli Armata
Chapter 8, The opacity of the body and the light of metaphors, Susi Ferrarello
Chapter 9, Body and Metaphor: an ethnography of the transformation of people with terminal cancer, Tomas Loza
Chapter 10, “What is it that I am missing?”, A Phenomenological Exploration of Metaphors in Schizophrenia Spectrum Disorders, Francesca Brencio
Chapter 11, The power of metaphors and metaphors of power. Some notes from social media, Rosanna Ciccarelli
Chapter 12, From forbidden death to digital ghosts: metaphors of death in the age of digital culture, Davide Sisto
Index