ABSTRACT
The last chapter presented a series of illustrations of the conservative function of the displacement of concepts. In a number of cases we saw how the literal language of a theory gives clues about the older theories from which it has been displaced; how this displacement carries with it, often covertly and uncritically, assumptions drawn from the older theory; and how these, in turn, represent our tendency to retain as much as we can of our old ways of thinking, even as we adapt them metaphorically to new situations.
