Metaphor And Characterization Of The Quantum World

The role of metaphor in science is an important topic on scientific philosophy nowadays. Including models, analogies, as well as other figurative language structures, the generalized scientific metaphor is the most basic component of language and scientific thinking. Along with the research being extensively carried out and gradually deepened, the legitimacy of scientific metaphor has been established and consolidated. The important role of scientific metaphor in science has not only been widely recognized by scientific philosopher, but also aroused the concern of many scientists. Scientific metaphor is considered not only has rhetorical function for the scientific language, but also has a more important cognitive function in the context of scientific evidence, and it also played an important role in the interpretation of scientific theories. Quantum mechanics is a profound revolution on the 20th century physics, the quantum world it studies is beyond the experience of humankind, it is the natural and inevitable choice to get concepts and establish theoretical models from metaphor. This paper aims to study the metaphor thinking in the process of formation and development of Quantum Mechanics and Quantum Computation, explore the specific application of scientific metaphor, and understand from the view of context, thereby reveal and grasp the importance of metaphor in Quantum Mechanics and other natural sciences.Papers composed mainly by the three chapters. The first chapter is "metaphor in science." This chapter reviews the research of scientific metaphor, investigates the characteristics of scientific metaphor different from the general metaphor, points out its unique functions, and discusses the concrete manifestation of metaphor in science taking the development of classical physics as an example. Then in the second chapter, "The Metaphor in quantum mechanics", we explores the metaphorical thinking in concepts, form system, explanations and teaching of Quantum Mechanics, to understand the function and significance of metaphor as scientific methodology in scientific discoveries, scientific explanations and scientific dissemination. In the third chapter, "The Metaphor in Quantum Computation", through the comparison analysis of forms, semantic and pragmatic sides between Quantum Computing and classic computing, we research the transfer and changes of computing concepts, theories and algorithms from the context of classical computing to that of Quantum Computing, and reveals the important role scientific metaphor plays in the process.