(Feminist) philosophy and metaphors

In this study the author is concerned with the relation between philosophy and metaphors, with an emphasis on the change in our understanding of this relation in the twentieth century and on the contribution of feminist philosophy to the ongoing discussion about the status of metaphors in philosophical discourse. She draws attention to the diverging approaches of Plato and Aristotle to metaphor, she gives a concise discussion of the authors who are responsible for the current meaning of metaphor in philosophy and she points to two contemporary approaches to Aristotle (J. Derrida and P. Ricoeur). She then turns to an explication of outlooks which allow us to understand metaphor as an organic part of the philosophical mapping of the universe (Z. Neubauer). The main part of the study is made up of an analysis of the views of the representatives of feminist philosophy on the role of metaphor in the philosophical texts of the classic authors, especially the metaphors of "maleness" and "femaleness" (G. Lloyd, E. F. Kittay, M. Le Doeuff), and on the possibility of their reinterpretation. As an example of attempts at the philosophical exploitation of metaphors the author analyses the metaphor of pregnancy in J. Kristeva, the metaphor of the deep sea in L. Irigaray, and the metaphor of the theatrical play in E. Buker. The author tends to the view that metaphors are an inseparable part of philosophical discourse and that active philosophical reinterpretation of metaphors is possible. She is however aware of the fact that for coming to more general conclusions we require a representative sample of the analyses of the functioning of metaphors in concrete philosophical texts, and so in the final part she rather raises questions and opens discussion of the problems which should become the subject-matter of further enquiry.