In Science
In science, pathetic fallacy occurs as a term peculiar to that field. Per the original meaning as coined by Ruskin, it is used pejoratively, although not limited by Ruskin’s criterion of pathos, it nonetheless revives the sense of an informal fallacy—to encourage literal communication in science, and to discourage figures of speech, that might convey an unintended false impression. An example is the phrase "Nature abhors a vacuum".
If pathetic fallacies are to be strictly and absolutely avoided, then explanations of natural phenomena should be free of the inappropriate modal force introduced by words like "want" or "try". For example, "Air hates to be crowded, and when compressed it will try to escape to an area of lower pressure". However, such phenomena have no conatus—they strive for nothing, they simply do, or do not—they do not "try". The pressure exerted by a gas is explained by kinetic theory: movement towards lower pressure is due to the probability that unobstructed gas molecules will become more evenly distributed between high and low pressure zones by a net flow from the former to the latter. Elective proclivities have nothing to do with it.
Informally, however, scientists may still take advantage of the pathetic fallacy for quick and convenient metaphoric explanations of complex scientific concepts in a readily understood way.
Read more about this topic: Pathetic Fallacy
Famous quotes containing the word science:
“Until politics are a branch of science we shall do well to regard political and social reforms as experiments rather than short-cuts to the millennium.”
—J.B.S. (John Burdon Sanderson)
“Imagination could hardly do without metaphor, for imagination is, literally, the moving around in one’s mind of images, and such images tend commonly to be metaphoric. Creative minds, as we know, are rich in images and metaphors, and this is true in science and art alike. The difference between scientist and artist has little to do with the ways of the creative imagination; everything to do with the manner of demonstration and verification of what has been seen or imagined.”
—Robert A. Nisbet (b. 1913)