Thought Experiments on the Heart

There is no other noun that is so metaphorically exploited as »the heart«. With so much cordiality among people, it’s no wonder that this overemphasis doesn’t go to the heart of a connoisseur of human nature like Lichtenberg, but on his nerves: »What they call the heart is far lower than the 4th waistcoat button.«

But it is also no wonder that the heart dominates our metaphorical (dis)order: The heart is a matter of life and death, the heart really does exist: for all its metaphorical overuse, it is also open to surgical intervention, even »heart transplantation«.