How do we connect the things we have with the goals we want to achieve? The answer: We have many ways! Each use or purpose may suggest some corresponding way to split things up — and in each such view there will seem to be some most essential parts. These are the ones that, in such a view, appear to serve the goal directly; the rest will seem like secondary parts that only support the role of the main parts. We do this not only in the physical realm, but in many other realms as well.
Each of these dumbbell distinctions has its own style for distinguishing essential parts from supportive parts. And even in the world of physical things, we can apply these different mental views in different ways. For example, there are many ways to describe the act of standing on a table in order to be able to reach higher.
Support: | Tables hold things away from the floor. |
Function: | Tables are for supporting things. |
Conclusion: | If you put something on a table, its height increases. |
Cause-Effect: | I can reach higher because I start higher. |
Means-Ends: | If I want to reach higher, I can stand on a table. |
Our systematic cross-realm translations are the roots of fruitful metaphors; they enable us to understand things we've never seen before. When something seems entirely new in one of our description-worlds, it may turn out that when translated to some other world it resembles something we already know.
Now, before you turn to the following page, try to solve this puzzle.