The Rule of Metaphor

'The writer's own introduction is a wonderful discourse on the whole state of language and meaning studies as these touch the issue of metaphor; few thinkers are as adept as Ricoeur at placing their own work in the context of that of others, naming the heroes and villains.' - John B. Davis, Philosophical Studies '...the density, acuity, and sheer scope of the argument are impressive.' - Times Literary Supplement 'I do not think that anyone would fail to find illumination and challenge in reading him.' - Times Literary Supplement 'This is Ricoeur at his pedagogical best - lucid, learned, inspiring. His generous range of reference - from Aristotle and Aquinas to Heidegger and Max Black - is breathtaking.' - Richard Kearney, Author of On Stories 'I do not think that anyone would fail to find illumination and challenge in reading him.' - Times Literary Supplement

Paul Ricoeur (1913-). One of the world's major philosophical thinkers, Professor Emeritus of the University of Paris X (Nanterre) and of the University of Chicago.

Translator's introduction Introduction Study 1/Between Rhetoric and Poetics: Aristotle 1. Rhetoric and Poetics 2. The intersection of the Poetics and the Rhetorics: 'Epiphora of the name' 3. An enigma: metaphor and simile (eikn) 4. The place of exis in rhetoric 5. The place of lexis in poetics Study 2/The decline of rhetoric: Tropology 1. The rhetorical 'model' of tropology Fontainer: the primacy of idea and of word 3. Trope and figure 4. Metonymy, synecdoche, metaphor 5. The family of metaphor 6. Forced metaphor and newly invented metaphorStudy 3/Metaphor and the semantics of Discourse 1. The debate between semantics and semiotics 2. Semantics and rhetoric of metaphor 3. Logical grammar and semantics 4. Literary criticism and semantics Study 4/Metaphor and the Semantics of the word 1. Monism of the sign and primacy of the word 2. Logic and linguistics of denomination 3. Metaphor as 'change of meaning' 4. Metaphor and the Saussurean postulates 5. Between sentence and word: the interplay of meaning Study 5/Metaphor and the new rhetoric 1. Deviation and rhetoric degree zone 2. The space of the figure 3. Deviation and reduction of deviation 4. The functioning of figures: 'semic' analysis Study 6/The work of resemblance 1. Substitution and resemblance 2. The 'iconic' moment of metaphor 3. The case against resemblance 5. Psycholinguistics of metaphor 6. Icon and image Study 7/Metaphor and reference 1. The postulates of reference 2. The case against reference 3. A generalized theory of denotation 4. Model and metaphor 5. Towards the concept of 'metaphorical truth' Study 8/Metaphor and Philosophical Discourse 1. Metaphor and the equivocalness of being: Aristotle 2. Metaphor and analogia entis: onto-theology 3. Meta-phor and meta-physics 4. The intersection of spheres of discourse 5. Ontological clarification of the postulate reference Appendix Notes Works cited Index of authors