Perplexity as a provocation: revisiting the role of metaphor as a 'place holder' for the potential of COVID-19 antibodies.
Med Humanit
; 2022 May 30.
Article
in English
| MEDLINE | ID: covidwho-2278777
ABSTRACT
This article revisits long-standing critiques of the role of metaphor in immunological discourse. Drawing on Alfred North Whitehead's speculative philosophy of organism, I focus on the use of metaphor to explain the process by which COVID-19 vaccine research is able to generate protective antibodies, the challenge of autoimmune disease and dengue fever antibodies. I suggest that metaphors are provoked by the perplexity that arises from presupposing that distinct morphological substances are the first order of reality. I conclude that rather than seeing metaphors as typically skewing conceptions of the body, as has been previously argued, those of memory, recognition and misrecognition may be instructive of a body in transition. Indeed, a process of transition that shows degrees of creativity. When gesturing towards the processual nature of infection and immunity, metaphors invite new modes of shared thinking across the disciplinary divide.
Full text:
Available
Collection:
International databases
Database:
MEDLINE
Topics:
Vaccines
Language:
English
Journal subject:
Ethics
Year:
2022
Document Type:
Article
Affiliation country:
Medhum-2021-012343
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