The White Mythology: Metaphor in the Text of Philosophy

“The White Mythology: Metaphor in the Text of Philosophy,” New Literary History 6.1 (1974): pp. 5-74.

Excerpt:

“Metaphor in the text of philosophy. We might be confident of understanding every word of this phrase; we might hasten to make out a figure (or to write it in) in the volume capable of philosophy; we might set ourselves to deal with a specific question: is there metaphor in the text of philosophy? in what form? to what extent? is it necessary or incidental? and so on. Our confidence is quickly lost: metaphor seems to bring into play the use of philosophical language in its entirety, nothing less than the use of what is called ordinary language in philosophical discourse, that is to say, of ordinary language as philosophical language.”

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