Metaphors in Modern and Contemporary Philosophy

Metaphor as a pervasive, ubiquitous phenomenon of thought and language cannot be absent from philosophy. Its presence in philosophy is twofold: as a topic of philosophical inquiry and as an instrument of philosophical inquiry. This collection of essays examines the role of metaphors in philosophy against the background of a reflection on the nature and function of metaphors in general. Drawing on the insights formulated in Ralf Könersmann's 'Wörterbuch der philosophischen Metaphern' and in the 'Historisches Wörterbuch der Philosophie', the editors acknowledge that philosophical metaphors are to be distinguished from philosophical concepts properly speaking, that not all metaphorical language in philosophy can be translated into pure concepts and that philosophical metaphors can have their own irreducible cognitive value. In the first and systematic part of the book different approaches to the role of philosophical metaphors in general are proposed from different angles. In the second part some selected metaphors in the history of modern philosophy are discussed. In the third part selected cases of metaphorical philosophical language are studied The essays in this collection focus on the way philosophers use concrete and specific metaphors in their discourse as instruments of philosophical thought. The philosophical involvement with metaphor has its ambiguities: on the one hand, philosophers seek the clear and unequivocal presentation of ideas and argumentations; on the other hand, philosophers do not seem able to do without metaphors and figurative language. The present collection of articles is intended to illustrate the idea that metaphors have their own irreplaceable role to play in philosophy, as the expression of the finite, provisional, and contingent character of our thinking. In the first, systematic part of the book, different approaches to the role of philosophical metaphors in general are proposed from different angles. In the second and third parts, some selected metaphors in the history of modern and contemporary philosophy are discussed.