Examining the history of science from the perspective of metaphor suggests that there are few differences between the literal and the metaphorical in scientific discourse. The central role of metaphors in science seems to ensure that science is open-ended, suggesting that conceptions of reality will always be open to change and interpretation.
Get full access to this article
View all access options for this article.
References
1.
PagelsH., The Cosmic Code, Bantam, New York, 1983.
2.
HoltonG., Thematic Origins of Scientific Thought, Harvard University Press, Cambridge, 1988.
3.
KaufmannW., Uber die Konstitution des Elektrons, Annalen der Physik, 19, pp. 487–553, 1906.
4.
HoffmanB. and DukasH., Albert Einstein, Creator and Rebel, Viking, New York, 1972.
5.
RortyR., Philosophy as Science, as Metaphor, as Politics, Essays on Heidegger and Others, Cambridge University Press, Cambridge, 1991.
6.
GerhartM. and RussellA., Metaphoric Process: The Creation of Scientific and Religious Understanding, Texas Christian University Press, Fort Worth, 1984.
7.
Aristotle, The Rhetoric and Poetics of Aristotle, SolmsenF. (ed.), Modern Library, New York, 1954.
8.
RicoeurP., The Rule of Metaphor, CzernyR. (trans.), University of Toronto Press, Toronto, 1977.
9.
BlackM., Models and Metaphors, Cornell University Press, Ithaca, 1962.
10.
HesseM., Models and Analogies in Science, Notre Dame University Press, Notre Dame, 1966.
11.
RothbartD., The Semantics of Metaphor and the Structure of Science, Philosophy of Science, 51, pp. 595–615, 1984.
12.
PeterfreundS., Scientific Models in Optics: From Metaphor to Metonymy and Back, Journal of the History of Ideas, 55, pp. 59–73, 1994.
13.
BurkeK., Grammar of Motives, University of California Press, Berkeley, 1962.
14.
DavidsonD., What Metaphors Mean, in On Metaphor, SacksS. (ed.), Chicago University Press, Chicago, 1979.
15.
ArbibM. and HesseM., The Construction of Reality, Cambridge University Press, Cambridge, 1986.
16.
EinsteinA., On the Electrodynamics of Moving Bodies, in The Principle of Relativity, SommerfieldA. (ed.), Dover, New York, 1952.
17.
PlanckM., Eight Lectures on Theoretical Physics, Columbia University Press, New York, 1915.
18.
MinkowskiH., On Space and Time, in The Principle of Relativity, SommerfieldA. (ed.), Dover, New York, 1952.
