Recent orders
Negotiating A Christian Philosophy Of
Negotiating A Christian Philosophy Of
In this paper I will, first, summarize the key values of the Enlightenment, as found in the Portable Enlightenment Reader. Second, I will explain why and on what basis the German romantic Johann Georg Hamann loathed modern science and the bold claims of the Enlightenment. In closing, I will attempt explain how Richard Wright’s Christian perspective, found in Biology Through the Eyes of Faith, relates to the above readings, and what a Christian Philosophy of Science is.
The message of Enlightenment intellectuals was not one of relying on faith or traditions of the past, but rather, solely in human reason. “ ‘Have courage to use your own reason – that is the motto of Enlightenment,’ Kant wrote in 1784” (XI). These intellectuals taught that science and technology were the means to Understanding, and that the world was run by scientific laws, not by God, an unexplainable, unattainable force. The emphasis was on the individual and his right to attain happiness. They felt that humans innately sought after pleasure, and things that would bring comfort to society as a whole.
There was an attack on religion, and it’s reliance on faith in a supernatural God, by the scientific community. God was seen more as the “clockmaker” who set everything in motion, but allowed it to work on it’s own. Enlightenment intellectuals sought to provide, in a sense, eternal life through progress of science and technology. Benjamin Franklin wrote, “All diseases may by sure means be prevented or cured, not excepting even that of old age, and our lives lengthened at pleasure even beyond the antediluvian standard” (XIII). This progress in science, which Franklin spoke of, required people to discount past superstitions and accept reason as the way of the future.
Individualism was also highly emphasized during the Enlightenment. Descartes’ eternal words “I think, therefore I am” clearly illustrates a key ingredient in Enlightenment ways. The individual was the creator of his own reality. This resulted in radical changes politically. No longer did people buy into the idea of ruling by divine right, but rather, that government was a voluntary act, in which individuals gave up some freedoms in order protect society and keep order. Government did not dictate moral or spiritual truths as it had in the past.
Life, then, became, as Adam Smith described it, “a race for wealth and honors and preferments” (XVII). If the government established a society were every individual had an “equal opportunity to win”, then the race would be fair. Emphasis was placed on becoming a self-made person; one who used their talents and virtues in order to better their economic status. Equality became defined as “all having an equal opportunity to have more” (XVIII).
As a true Romantic and a Christian extremist, Johann Georg Hamann’s values were in opposition with those of the Enlightenment. Romantics held fast that emotions, feelings, and experiencing nature were much more important that rationalization. Hamann was himself quite suspicious of the Enlightenment thinkers because of their insensitivity to human suffering. He felt that Enlightenment ideals reduced people and all of nature to nothing more then mere numbers and data. Their abstractions, according to Hamann, tended to de-humanize people.
In his Christian philosophy of science, Hamann made clear that Christians needed to avoid positivism, which taught that scientific knowledge was the only “true” knowledge. Naturalism and materialism were two Enlightenment ideals that Hamann would not buy into. Hamann, unlike the relativists of the Enlightenment, believed in a single Truth, which came from God.
In Richard Wright’s Biology Through the Eyes of Faith, we see another perspective on how science and technology relates to our Christian faith. As an enthusiastic evangelical Christian he believes that God created nature, and that God interacts with His creation on a second by second basis. Wright makes it clear from the outset of his book that worldviews are extremely important when people try to understand science and it’s balance with God. A worldview, he says, help us to “determine values, held up to interpret the world around us, and in general function as a guide to life” (9). He frowns upon both the settlers of America and their equivalents today, us, by saying that both groups look at nature as a potential income source. A healthy worldview would protect nature from self-interested people, he feels.
Wright clearly understands the beauty and majesty of God’s creation, although he is not a Romantic like Hamann. He believes in the collection of data and the formation of hypotheses and theories as important and valid work. Unlike most secular scientist however, Wright sees the significance in discovering the metaphysical components of scientific work. Wright never claims, as many Enlightenment intellects did, that science would lead to an absolute Truth. He recognizes that science helps us to better understand our world, which helps us to better understand God, which I fully agree with him on. To me, Wright seems to have managed a good balance between the ideals of progress and technological advancement of the Enlightenment with the sensitivity and belief in the all-powerful God of the Romantic Christians. The intellects of the Enlightenment wanted to achieve a type of heaven here on Earth through bettering their conditions. I feel that God wants the same for us; He doesn’t want us to struggle and suffer through life. God has given us brains to use and creativity with which to invent. However, as Christians, we realize that nature could change at anytime, and that regardless of what we create or how far our technology advances, God is always in control, and we will never fully understand Him.
The Enlightenment ideals of reason and individualism are a stark contrast to those truths of emotionalism and humanism of the Romantics. There can be a balance between these two, however, and modern-day scientist Richard Wright is a prime example.
Bibliography:
Necessity of Art
Necessity of Art
There was a lot going on in other parts of the world before 2500 BCE in places such as the Fertile Crescent. Do a web search for the empires that rose and fell there. This course starts at 2500 BCE because it is when Upper Egypt and Lower Egypt, two separate empires, were united.
Another thing to remember is that the world has not physically changed for the last 10,000 years. It still looks the same as it did then. Mankind, however, made many of the changes the earth has endured. The pyramids for example are visible from outer space. Do a web search or some reading on ancient Egypt. Their entire culture revolved around their belief of where they came from and where they were going. Search the web for information about the Greeks and how their intellect drove them to lay the foundations of modern science, philosophy, architecture and so much more. The Romans conquered the ancient world through brute strength and military prowess but, it was through them and their language that Christianity found a foothold in the history of civilization.
Man is the only creature on earth that can ask themselves these profound questions; who are we? Why are we here? Where did we come from? It is the ability to question our existence that separates us from the other inhabitants of this planet. Because of this curiosity, we express ourselves.
Self-actualization is our greatest need. It is a greater need and more important than food, shelter or clothing. It is also part of our psychological make up to be happy. In order to be completely happy we must have three needs fulfilled: The first, is the need to belong. Being assured that we do in fact belong is just as important. Whether we belong to a tribe, a group, a family or a club; belonging is vitally important to a feeling of happiness and well-being. In fact, it is the main reason kids join gangs.
The other need we have, in order to be happy, is affection. Affection tells us that we are thought of or special enough to be loved. Belonging and affection are inter-changeable. The last need we must have to assure our happiness is control. We constantly need to feel that we are in control of our lives and everything that supports or surrounds it.
Art is a form of expression. Art is the expression of self or, self-expression. Art is also a form of control. Primitive man used art to target bond. That is, by depicting or drawing the animal or the image of it, they were capturing its spirit. By drawing or painting the animal they were hunting, they would then have control over it.
Art has also been used to define or to give a physical shape to, the gods of many religions. So powerful is art that the Judeo-Christian god, God or Yahweh (and many other names for the same diety) commanded Moses that’ “graven images” were not to be tolerated.
Art has been used to communicate the power of belief and faith. It has been used to define the unsealed. It has been used to capture or control the forces of Mother Earth and Father Sky. It is what was used before writing to record lore and legends. In its very least usage, it has been used to decorate and to identify families, tribes, armies, kingdoms and wealth.
What it is, is what it does. It is said that form (what something looks like, or its shape) follows function (what the form does). For example: a water pitcher looks like a water pitcher because of what it does. It holds water until it is ready to be poured into another form. Sometimes, however function follows form. If you lived in an efficiency apartment, you would have to conform to the space. Or, perhaps this is clearer, a barn houses barn animals. Ernst Fischer, who wrote “The Necessity of Art” said, “Art is as old as man. It is a form of work, and work is an activity peculiar to mankind.”
Art has the ability to transform the invisible into the visible. After all, what does God really look like? Art can capture not only what a face looks like, but perhaps even the spirit of the person in the portrait. Ernst Fischer, also said, “Man takes possession of the natural by transforming it. Work is the transformation of the natural. Man also dreams of working magic upon nature, of being able to change objects and give them new form by magic means. This is the equivalent in the imagination of what work means in reality. Man is, from the onset a magician.”
It is necessary to have a concept of time when studying Art History. Yet, it is just as important to realize that time is itself a concept. Study the prehistoric cave paintings that were found in France at Lascaux and in those at Altamira in Spain. Then, compare them to the artwork found in Micenian Greece or the Dark Ages.
Art is more tangible than time. However, time is and was a very important element. Time after all, is a way to control man’s destiny. Look at the motif called the “Greek Key” and ask yourself why or how were the Greeks able to articulate time in a way that Einstein would coin much later: the Time Wave. The measurement of time is the real issue here. The measurement of time (clocks) or chronology, was perfected as a result of the need by the early Christian church to honor God at the same time, several times a day. Time and art are united because art records a time, a person or a place in time. Art, makes time stand still. Much later in the early twentieth century, art takes a peek into the future and as a result is horrified.
Your life is a reflection of your surroundings. It could be said that you may take a Frenchman out of France but you can never take France out of the Frenchman. Art is a reflection of a time and a place. It is also created by time and place. Could the pyramids have been built exactly as they were elsewhere? Where would civilizations be without commerce and trade? Trade assures that ideas and cultures are exchanged. The Greeks learned from the Egyptians. The Romans copied the Greeks.
Geography is so important a component that without the Nile, there would be no Egypt. Without the Fertile Crescent, no Mesopotamia. Without the rocky landscape of Greece, Greek culture would have remained isolated.
Stop and think of it. If you knew everything, what would death mean to you? If you knew you would live forever, what would you fear? Would there be a need for fear? What would you have to know if you knew you would live forever? Knowledge and immortality are the Yin and Yang of God. Only he can contain both. The great fable of the “Garden of Eden” was a great paradoxical tail.
As Freddy Mercury, of Queen Fame sang, “Who wants to live forever? Who needs to live forever?” Man can think of and therefore create anything and everything. Man (Adam & Eve) chose to eat of the Tree of the Knowledge of Good and Evil instead of the fruit of the Tree of Life. For that, Adam would have to’ “Live by the sweat of his brow.” Eve would have to suffer “the pain of childbirth.” The moment they gained knowledge, they became ashamed of their nakedness. Think of it; either way, Adam and Eve would have to make a choice. That’s the key, the point; the ability to choose our destiny. Choice is control. Knowledge is power! Think about the 4-Stages of Knowledge; Innocence/Ignorance, Fancy/Dream, Experience and Wisdom
The Egyptians struggled to “live forever” by preserving not only their mortal remains, but the memory of that life as well. The Greeks had very fuzzy borders between gods and men. In fact, many of their gods acted as men and many men became gods. The god possessed immortality but perhaps not much in the brains department. The Romans realized that the deeds and the knowledge of their ancestors paved the way for future generations. As boundless as Man’s knowledge is or can be, the one thing he cannot possess is immortality. What is the promise of the Hereafter?
“Man became man through tools… There is no tool without man and no man without tools; they came into being simultaneously and are indissolubly linked to one another.” Or, so says Ernst Fischer.
Karl Marx on the other hand said, “But what from the very first distinguishes the most in incompetent architect from the best of the bees, is that the architect has built a cell in his head before he constructs it in wax. The labor process ends in the creation of something which, when the process began, already existed in the worker’s imagination, already existed in an ideal form… the worker brings about a change of form in natural objects; at the same time, in the nature that exists apart from himself, he… has to subordinate his own will.”
St. Thomas Aquinas said, Habet homo rationem et manum! “The hand released human reason and produced human consciousness.” Therefore, art is the expression of the human conscious. J. G. Herder said, “Man stepped into the world: what an ocean immediately raged around him! With how great an effort did he learn to distinguish! To recognize his various senses! To rely only on the senses he had recognized.”
Piet Mondrian, the painter, believed in the possible disappearance of art because reality would displace it. Why? Because “it” was a substitute for something not present at the time it was executed. He said, “Art will disappear as life gains more equilibrium.”
What is this equilibrium he spoke of? Was it in regards to when man gains more balance with nature? Does this statement recognize that art too, has a nature and is necessary? Will man ever be in complete balance with nature? If not, will art always then remain necessary? Why does man need art for distraction, as a way to relax or be entertained? What makes human beings respond to the “unreality” of a piece of art as if it were reality itself?
The need to be one with everything. There’s a bad Zen joke that goes like this: How does a Zen Buddhist order a hot dog? “Make me one with everything!” Man needs to be whole and he can never be. Wholeness let us say belongs to the gods. Wholeness is a combination of knowledge and immortality. But, in order to be whole he must become more than just an individual. He can only be whole when he takes possession of the experiences of others. Art allows him to associate, to share experiences and ideas with others. Art allows man to become one with the whole of reality.
Art allows man to absorb himself in (a) reality and on the other hand to control that reality. Art is according to Socialist theory; work. Art is a conscious, rational process, which produces the product of mastered reality. Ernst Fischer, who wrote The Necessity of Art said, “In order to be an artist it is necessary to seize, hold and transform experience into memory, memory into expression, material into form.”
A means of becoming one with the whole of reality
The individual’s way to the world at large
The expression of his desire to identify himself with what he is not
If art is love, is love the answer? Art is conditioned by time and represents humanity through its correspondence of the ideas, aspirations, needs and hopes of a particular point in history. “My nature is to join in love, not hate.” – Antigone by the Greek playwright Aeschylus
Art, then, if I may be so bold, is love. Art enables the “I” to identify (love is identification) with another’s life and make him what he is not, yet is capable of being. “For without that minute residue of (magic) its original nature” says Fischer, “art ceases to be art.” When the magic is gone from the relationship – it’s the same. Or, as Francis Bacon (1561-1626) said, “Man prefers to believe what he prefers to be true”
Art is necessary because it has a function. It depicts reality (truth) and singles out beauty. Art is affected and conditioned by time or the cycles of time which include Birth, Growth, Maturity and Death. These four stages affect everything and everyone!
Art developed along with tools and language. Art began as an exercise (copying) in reproduction and replication. Art became associated with the development and perpetuity of myth. Art was one of the earliest forms of magic because it was believed that the spirit of hunted animals could be bonded with by painting them. Art was also used to depict fertility through the use of fetish figures.
Art also helped to develop and identify class and society (natural pecking order based on fertility/strength), created tribal unity by association (identification) and by fostering common belief(s) by creating images and idols. Most belief systems were collective and priests and sorcerers represented the collective.
Art is about imagery. Images are social forms. Images contain or represent power. Images represent symbiotic relationships. Some African tribes, for example, are vague about what is a picture and what is real (some modern children and even adults have the same difficulty). The image is the essence of the spirit. Imagery helps transfer the collective’s (a group’s) beliefs, hopes or needs to prey or to higher powers.
Art plays a very powerful and important part in society. It works for society by performing magic. Art depicts, represents or duplicates what is important to life. What is important to life is crucial to life.
Art evolved with civilization from a collective form or common expression (Homogeneous or single influence) such as folk art to a more socially oriented or class art (Heterogeneous or multiple influences).
Realism was first based on nature (naturalism) and evolved into idealism (focused on beauty). Symbolism and mysticism were byproducts of naturalism. With realism came humanization. With idealism came the opposite effect of dehumanization but not in the sense of being less than human but more so, yet less than gods.
Art is handed down or passed on from master, to pupil, to admirer and copyist. In ancient Egypt, the word sculptor meant he who keeps alive. Art is an integral part of the belief system. Images of gods were used to not only describe outside (natural) forces, they were also used to make those forces more responsive and controllable. Images were also used to invoke, placate or challenge the gods.
Imagery also represents the collective belief and is a projection of the human need to believe or to surrender to some kind of design or purpose when faced by a hostile life or universe. This imagery is supported by (or supports) a mythology. Every culture has a mythology. Except, as the Egyptians believed, the Egyptians.
They believed that their myths were actual truths and part of their history. Mythology is an attempt to understand or interpret the mysteries of life. Mythology is based on belief. It is either a step beyond logic or it is a form of logic. It is both sacred and profane. It sets standards, examples, patterns, sequences, and defines human behavior.
It is part of what Jung described as the collective unconscious. It was this same collective unconscious that gave us the myths of the Cosmic Egg, the Flood, the quest for fire, good and evil (battling monsters), the Ladder to Heaven and the Creation Story. These myths can be found in more than one culture in more than one corner of the earth (on or around the same period of time).
Art was born not only with tools and language but with human consciousness. The consciousness of self and the environment. Consciousness of self allows man to be a change maker.
Three thousand years ago, the foundations of modern culture were laid out through a combination of human skill and natural facts in order to exploit nature. Civilization then, is the creative interaction of humans through (trade and art) a surplus of resources accelerated by high technological achievement (such as travel).
Part of that consciousness recognized the difference between knowledge and immortality. The gods possessed both. Man however, was given a choice between knowledge and immortality. Of what use is knowledge when life is finite? Of what use is knowledge when you have immortality? Man, as the story goes, chose knowledge and has been struggling ever since to be immortal Faced with their mortality, humans had to create or relate to the immortal being(s) that controlled their environment. By doing this, they gained some control or assurance that the cycle of the seasons would continue, fertility would go on unabated and that the sun, indeed, would come up tomorrow.
Art is a reflection of content and form.
Society (or people within a collective) create form(s) or order, based on social consciousness (awareness) or need. Form then, is a social function. Form is primary in society. Content is secondary. Content, however, changes before form does.
Form contains subject, content and the meaning or message. Eventually, classical pagan forms would give way or be incorporated in order to express new (Christian) or altered content. Form is the familiar way society and individuals within that society see or look at their surroundings. The first figurative art (20,000 BCE) were “Venuses” which have been found from the Pyrenees to the Black Sea. Then there was a gradual decline in the production of these objects due to both the Ice Age and declining food sources especially herd populations. These sculptures are both male and female (Venus) with appropriate male and female symbolism.
Bibliography:
NCAA Tournament
NCAA Tournament
There’s something surreal about the men’s NCAA basketball tournament. One of the great things about the tournament is the excitement created by the one and out format if you lose. The uncertainty creates a level thrilling basketball that’s only found at the college level. Sixty-four teams will be competing to for a chance at the National Title. The teams can get to the tournament by means of two ways. The first way is to be highly ranked by a system called the Ratings Percentage Index (RPI), which was formulated to help the NCAA basketball committee assemble and seed the teams for the tournament. The true selection process by the RPI is unknown but many former selection committee members have acknowledged that it is derived from three components including a team’s winning percentage (25%), its opponent’s winning percentage (50%), and its opponent’s winning percentage (25%). The other possibility of going to the tournament is to win the conference tournament, which teams belong. For those teams who have little hope of getting an at-large bid by the RPI system, they have a chance at the NCAA tournament by winning their conference tournament. Teams all across the nation are scrambling at a shot for this prestigious tournament. The tournament itself is better known as “March Madness.” Sports analysts, commentators, and announcers’ use of metaphoric terminology to help describe, explain, and illustrate why the men’s NCAA basketball tournament is so highly prestigious.
A metaphor allows one to describe a text so that it gives meaning and is understandable to others. Michael Osborn and Douglas Ehninger suggest that that a metaphor functions as a “communicative stimulus that allows a user to identify an idea or object through a sign which generally denotes an entirely different idea or object. Metaphor also functions as a mental response because of the interaction between ideas suggested by the terms usual denotation and its special denotation in the particular context.” Metaphors are critical in describing the event of the NCAA tournament and its importance.
The tournament is generally referred to as “The Big Dance.” This description of the tournament is widely used showing the importance of the event. There are many teams that would give anything to attend this so called “Big Dance.” This term in itself describes the prestige of a team going to the tournament. “Big” is officially known as great in size, and “dance” is officially known as moving one’s body and feet in rhythm. Many sports writers and commentators use these terms when March rolls around. The “Big Dance” was used just as often as the NCAA tournament was used in my research. Dick Vital is one of the commentators who often uses these terms and uses them with extreme intensity stating, “It’s that time of year fans, and here’s who I like in the “Big Dance…”
The pattern of these prestigious metaphors is also apparent in the different levels of the tournament bracket. Any team that advances two games into the tournament are immediately apart of what is normally called the “Sweet Sixteen.” At this point in the tournament, a team has made it to either the West, Midwest, South, or East, semifinals, but “Sweet Sixteen” is typically used as a more convincing term. The next round in the tournament is the separate divisional Championships. Most writers and commentators call this the “Elite Eight.” Another advancement in the tournament would send you into the National Semifinals where only four teams remain. The National Semifinals are better known as the road to the “Final Four.” The National Semifinals would be foreign to most people but the phrase “Final Four” is widely common. A team would then advance to the National Championship after winning a “Final Four” game. There have only been twelve teams in history to win two or more NCAA National Championship titles. UCLA leads with eleven titles, Kentucky with seven, Indiana with five, Duke with three, and North Carolina with three titles leading out the top five teams. The National Title is also known in the sports world as winning the “Crown.” These metaphors are highly known in the sports world including the “Sweet Sixteen, Elite Eight, Final Four, and the Crown.”
The next term that is widely used in the sports world describes a team who has had an average regular season and proceeded to upset a higher ranked team in their conference tournament. They try to ride that wave of momentum into the field of sixty-four and hope to upset another higher ranked team in the first and second rounds of the tournament to make it to the “Sweet Sixteen.” These teams are commonly known as the “Cinderella” teams. These teams typically don’t make it farther than the “Sweet Sixteen” where their season comes to an end. A perfect example of a “Cinderella” team would be Gonzaga University. What Gonzaga did was give every other team in the West Coast Conference hope. To most of the college basketball world, it must seem as if Gonzaga magically busted onto the NCAA tournament scene out of nowhere. What Gonzaga accomplished was reaching the “Sweet Sixteen” for the third straight season. Only the two other teams including Duke and Michigan State can say the same. This is why they are generally called “Cinderella” teams. Since Gonzaga has accomplished this feat in the past three years, they are no longer called a “Cinderella” team. If a team completes an upset during the first round but doesn’t go on to win another game they’re just called “One Hit Wonders.” There are also many other metaphors describing this type of team which many people call “David vs. Goliath” success stories. Teams such as Duke or Michigan State are typically known as “Powerhouse” teams. They are called this because of their frequent appearances in the “Big Dance.” A “David vs. Goliath” success story is described when a smaller team such as Temple who had a seed of eleven beats a team such as Florida with a number three seed. Another example would come from last year’s 2001 tournament when number two seeded North Carolina lost to number seven seeded Penn State to advance to the “Sweet Sixteen.”
In particular, I looked at the live coverage of the 2001 NCAA final four and all of its media coverage. There were three games that I researched including the two final four games that consisted of (Arizona versus Michigan State and Duke versus Maryland) and the National Championship game, which hosted Duke versus Arizona. One of the metaphors used to describe the tournament is war. Many commentators often refer to the NCAA tournament in a sense of comparing the competition to aspects of war. On the other hand, this terminology was in no means used in a negative context concerning events that have happened in the past or that are currently affecting us. They use this language of warfare to explain, define, illustrate, and compare the tournament with war. The games are typically referred to as battles. Holly Cross coach Ralph Willard claims, “This is do-or- die basketball for the so called mid-major schools. You have to be tough out there… Set tone and tempo from the start. Fight your way through screens, set good picks, block out strong, and battle on the floor for loose balls.” This statement shows the level of intensity, which the games are being played. Players are also referred to as warriors out on the court. Shane Battier of the Duke blue devils discussing the tournament claimed, “We’ll never wave the white flag… We have too much pride. We know what it’s like to look into the eyes of a surrendering team.” Battier was also described as a “veteran” of the Duke blue devils. This metaphor is used to describe a player who has played for a team for duration such as Battier has done for four years. Many players who have as much talent as Battier end up leaving college early to enter the NBA draft before they finish their college career. During the games of the final four of the 2001 NCAA tournament, many warlike connotations were used. First, Duke was referred to as an “enemy” of their opponent Arizona. This suggests somewhat of a rivalry between the two teams. They were the only two teams out of sixty-four to successfully win five straight games and make it to the National championship. Another term that was used was “bombs.” This terminology referred to Duke’s Jason Williams “dropping bombs” which was used in the manner of him scoring several points consistently. He made four baskets in a row which could have also been taken as him “shooting” very well. Williams was also referred to as being a very “explosive” player. This terminology was used to describe is quickness on the court to drive past his opponents. The use of ‘attack” was used many times to describe players getting rebounds and driving into the lane to score points. For example, Shane Battier was described as “attacking the boards” which means he was getting a lot of rebounds. There were many other terms used in describing the final four such as “war,” “hero,” and “defeat.” These terms are all helpful in describing the tournament and basketball in general so that people can understand it better.
Another typical use of metaphor terminology involves the use of fantasy and myth. The tournament is described as an event that is so prestigious the whole experience is said to be surreal. Many terms related to fantasy and myths are used to describe the tournament. First of all, as I stated earlier, teams that aren’t expected to win are called Cinderella teams. These teams are typically called Cinderella teams because of the success story that was not supposed to have happened. These teams’ success stories are related to the story of Cinderella (hence the name.) The “David and Goliath” success story is another use of metaphor typically describing an underhanded team that beats a more prestigious team in the NCAA tournament. Maryland was the only team who was described this way last year in the finals because they lost to Florida State (the worst team in the ACC) during their last regular season game. Once they were in the tournament, they beat the number one seeded Stanford in the West’s final to advance to the final four while they were only ranked a number three seed in their division. The game was a “David and Goliath” match because Stanford was the number one seed in the West division. The tournament is also referred to as a “dream” for the players. There is only sixty-four teams that get a chance in the tournament and for those teams who win four straight games; they have made it into the “final four” best teams of the nation. Many references were made to the senior players that may or may not get a shot at the next level of the NBA. These players at least got to go out in style if they didn’t have a chance in the draft.
There were also many more metaphors used in covering the tournament that didn’t fit into a specific “bracket.” One of these metaphors described the tournament as a “cornucopia of basketball madness.” This was a way of describing the number of games in which the tournament hosts or showing how so many different teams across the nation were involved in the tournament. The entire tournament is described more often by the two metaphors of “March Madness, The Big Dance, and/or March Mayhem.” First, “March Madness and March Mayhem” describes the one and out style of the tournament if you lose. This puts pressure on the players and coaches because upsets are always bound to happen. “The Big Dance” also describes the tournament’s diversity where teams shuffle to gain spots no matter how they compare to the other team’s strength. This reiterates the fact that so many teams are fighting for the same goal (The NCAA men’s basketball championship.)
Sports analysts, commentators, and announcers use of metaphoric terminology help to describe, explain, and illustrate the why the men’s NCAA basketball tournament is so highly prestigious. Metaphoric categories of war-like and fantasy terminology help in showing why the tournament is so prestigious. The tournament coverage of CBS closes with David Barrett’s piano preamble. The song is also shows how the “thrill of victory and agony of defeat” wraps up the tournament. The power of these metaphors exemplify why the tournament is so important to the players, coaches, and fans of colleges who get a chance to participate.
Bibliography: