ABSTRACT
WILLIE HENDERSON of appraising metaphor, raised earlier in the chapter, is also explored in the second section.
WHAT IS METAPHOR? Metaphor has been extensively discussed since the days of Aristotle. In understanding metaphor there are two problems to be faced: that of distinguishing the non-literal from the literal and that of exploring the various forms that the non-literal use of language can take. Aristotle tended to concentrate on the former problem, his successors in the classical world tended to concentrate on the latter. Modern approaches to metaphor concentrate on the non-literal and give pride of place to it. This reverses the tradition of the early Enlightenment when metaphor was banished along with other 'wild imaginings' in an attempt to establish a scientific discourse based upon observation and reason. A broad review of metaphor in economics, therefore, needs to address the questions of the demarcation and identification of what is taken to be metaphorical language as well as of the function and assessment of metaphor (Cooper 1986).
