Is philosophy metaphorical?

@Reconstructo,

You trip on a trope in every sentence. "Trope" is a trope. "Sentence" is a trope. You want literal meaning? Sure, but "literal" is also a trope, and so is "meaning." Philosophy is mostly dead metaphors. It's progress is often its moment of live metaphor..

A dead metaphor is one we no longer see. Until we look, think about it, examine etymology.

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@Reconstructo,

To say that philosophy is metaphor is to add yet another metaphor to philosophy.

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@Reconstructo,

"Philosophy is not metaphorical." Wouldn't a statement like this be a negative metaphor? And also an instance of philosophy as metaphor?

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@Reconstructo,

This is Rorty on metaphor. I found this essay convincing and important.

Objectivity, relativism, and truth - Google Books

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@Reconstructo,

Yet another mask on the mask-spewing mask-chewing "not-there."

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@Reconstructo,

Reconstructo;113460 wrote:

You trip on a trope in every sentence. "Trope" is a trope. "Sentence" is a trope. You want literal meaning? Sure, but "literal" is also a trope, and so is "meaning." Philosophy is mostly dead metaphors. It's progress is often its moment of live metaphor..

A dead metaphor is one we no longer see. Until we look, think about it, examine etymology.

Philosophy is metaphorical, yes! But only metaphorically speaking.

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@Reconstructo,

Reconstructo;131354 wrote:

Yet another mask on the mask-spewing mask-chewing "not-there."

You're still talking to yourself on here after two months? Laughing

What are you saying, by the way?

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@Zetherin,

Zetherin;131373 wrote:

You're still talking to yourself on here after two months?
What are you saying, by the way?

I'm not ashamed to talk to myself. At any time another person could join this forum who gets it. By it, I mean this value of this particular theme. Lots of folks around here get it in a general sense of the phrase.

As far as answering your question goes, I am hardly the first person to note the importance of metaphor in philosophy. Rorty, Davidson, Hesse, Derrida, etc. Also Anatole France wrote brilliantly on the subject in the Garden of Epicurus.

---------- Post added 02-23-2010 at 08:40 PM ----------

kennethamy;131367 wrote:

Philosophy is metaphorical, yes! But only metaphorically speaking.

Yes, and speaking is largely metaphorical.

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@Reconstructo,

Speaking metaphorically is the way to go to reach the unknowing, if one has the right colors on the pallet.

William

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@Reconstructo,

"I want to be an eagle gliding, not some ape in a cage. "
That's what Umo said when they asked him why he liked philosophy so much.

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Is philosophy metaphorical?

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