The development of the sciences through metaphors
a research program in science studies
DOI:
https://doi.org/10.52712/issn.1850-0013-989Keywords:
evolutionary epistemology, metaphors, history of sciences, philosophy of sciencesAbstract
Usually it is held that the metaphors are expressions in which something is said but it is evoked or suggested another thing; that they are – or they should be – almost exclusive patrimony of the literary language or the vulgar language; and that they are not relevant in the science. However, the ubiquity of the metaphor in the science – not only in the teaching and the popularization of the knowledge but also in its production and mainly in its legitimation – takes to suspect that there is something erroneous in those points of view. Thus, this paper attempt to disagree with the three precedent claims and to hold, on the contrary, that the metaphors say something for themselves, and not only as mere subsidiaries of another literal considered expression; that although there are excellent examples in the literature, there are also brilliant and fecund metaphors in the science and, the strongest thesis, that the metaphors perform a fundamental constituent role in the science. In this sense, it is thought about the possibility to develop an research programme on the base of an evolutionary epistemology whose units of selection are the metaphors, epistemically considered.
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