The Swan: A Metaphor with Meaning or An Analogy for Grace?
A widely popularised analogy that's also part of a contentious philosophical theory by Karl Popper, considered one of the greatest thinkers of the twentieth century
We’ve all heard it. The swan analogy or metaphor. Widely used to suggest the elegant and graceful worker, business owner or individual whom upon initial appearances looks to be taking things within their stride, whilst beneath the cool, calm and collected exterior, lies the mad paddling like a swan, gracefully floating on the water yet with their legs going like the clappers below the water’s surface – propelling the swan in a somewhat serene like nature towards their destined location.
Upon plugging, ‘The Swan Analogy’ into my Google search (yes, the intelligent rabbit hole again luring me down a plentiful path of theory) the first page returns answers with titles such as; ‘Leading like a Swan,’ by Harvard Business Publishing, ‘When Leadership Gets Tough, Channel Your Inner Swan,’ by International Tax Review and as a metaphor for love and even Charley Mackesy, author of, The Boy, the Mole, the Fox and the Horse, wrote using his own quote about the analogy, saying ‘how do they look so together and perfect,’ asked the Boy, ‘there’s a lot of frantic paddling going on beneath,’ said the Horse.
On the other hand, Harvard Business Org, equates the swan methodology to leaders who shield their teams from panic and project a calm, swan like image, gliding across the water and not showing the fast paddling below.
But then, when I look up the behaviour of a swan (under the perfect questions that others have asked on their Google searches) I see that they’re actually highly protective of their nests and will viciously attack anything that they deem to be a threat to their nests and young.
However, black swans are said to describe something that comes as a shock or surprise and according to Simply Psychology, Karl Popper, social and political philosopher, regarded as one of the greatest philosophers of science of the twentieth century, is known for his, ‘Falsification Principle’ (deductive logic) and using the ‘all swans are white’ hypothesis to describe a philosophical question and approach to outline and distinguish science from non-science.
His theory used this example, ‘Europeans, for thousands of years had observed millions of white swans. Using inductive evidence, we could come up with the theory that all swans are white.’ So, if you haven’t ever encountered one black swan you can’t be sure that one doesn’t exist because we cannot observe a whole space all of the time or be in all places. This he said is why we cannot be justified in making a general claim, when we cannot be sure and confirm a theory as true – which could be refuted at a later date and counter-observed to falsify it.
Popper proposed that scientific methods should be based on falsification. Hence my whole point on the theory and use of the swan analogy.  Looking to disprove the theory rather than an attempt to prove it to approach the truth – although we can never be certain that we indeed do have it.
Many reject the theory and his claims to dismiss inductivism, (according to Oxford Languages means the use of or preference for inductive methods of reasoning, especially in science) and whilst he has a point, others state that one false statement should not mean you reject a whole theory and its layers of complexities.
The link to the article is here if like me you find theories, methods and ideas insightful but I guess what really matters is less about the analogy and more around how we as people digest and make sense of any given meaning of things such as the swan analogy.
With many of us taking the metaphor to bend, shape and weave into our articles, thoughts, opinions and business situations, it becomes clear that our flexibility of thought can be malleable enough to morph ideas into whatever we deem and want them to be and navigate towards feeding our individual views that match our current thinking, belief systems, values, journey and path.
The reality though is that as a society it is our collective beliefs and values that aid us in making sense of the world and our understanding of it and the people within it. I guess what stands out is how we evolve through time and with time we learn new, reformed and extended perhaps better ways of approaching and doing things as well as defining them or indeed not feeling the need to define them at all.
What about you? Do you relate to the swan analogy and have you used it yourself within your writing, posts and to describe either your business, yourself, leaders or anyone that may appear cool, calm and collected but you know from your own work experience that it’s likely underneath the façade lies a different story?
NB: All Artistic Credit goes to my creative, autistic son as work experience (and because he likes it) from his college Creative Media course.
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