Sign and Metaphor

Abstract

The capacity to feel deeply about the environment and the ability to innovate-these two primary concerns of the humanist geographer-are closely linked. Both presuppose a mind that is able to apprehend and create the affective sign, the metaphor, and the symbol. Environment is vivid because the stimulus a person receives from one source can generate multiple and unexpected sensations, images, and ideas. Synesthesia, metaphorical predication, and symbolic thought are different modes of this process: they differ in the degree of conscious awareness and in the content of articulable ideas. Humanist geographers, by studying this process, will better understand the “felt quality” of environment and the problems of design. © 1978, Taylor & Francis Group, LLC. All rights reserved.