Metaphor and Metaphysics

Abstract

Drawing on the experientialism of Lakoff and Johnson, I develop some metaphysical implications of metaphor theory. Not only do we understand the world in terms of conceptual metaphors, but fundamental constituents of our experienced world are metaphoric. I call these structures of experience essences. However, by essence I am not referring to eternal, unchanging entities. Essences are culturally emergent, both ontologically and historically. They are the referents of essentially contested concepts, and they emerge dialectically from practices and institutions in which those concepts are contested. Essences exist at an ontological level prior to the subject/object split and prior to clear distinctions among substance, attribute, and function. I relate this concept of essence to Ricoeur's notion of being as. I then argue that strong philosophical metaphors, which are often expressed in philosophical definition, reveal these metaphoric essences.