ABSTRACT
This chapter explores two variations on the theme of philosophy's opening to metaphor. They represent the far reaches of the topic as explored in the work of Jacques Derrida and Paul Ricoeur. The Ricoeur–Derrida debate indicates how far scholarly opinion about metaphor and philosophy has come. Ricoeur–Derrida is also edifying for the thematics of the present project because it brings us to the possibility of a theory that applies metaphor to psyche. The epoch of metaphysics, which encompasses all of philosophy including, and beyond, poststructuralism, is designated by Derrida as logocentric. Giuseppe Stellardi's critique involved the discussion of these tensional doublings that typify Derrida's approach to the relationship of metaphor and philosophy. The analogical difference that founds speculative analogy, in Ricoeur's estimation, is the instantiation of metaphor within speculative analysis. For Ricoeur, the possibility of a philosophy based in usual metaphor, and specifically its ability to make ontological claims, requires a redress of the modern theory.
