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A clash of competing metaphors

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  01 October 1999

Michael Bradie
Affiliation:
Department of Philosophy, Bowling Green State University, Bowling Green, OH 43403 mbradie@bgnet.bgsu.edu

Abstract

Metaphors have three important functions in scientific discourse: heuristic, rhetorical, and epistemic. I argue that, contrary to prevailing opinion, metaphors are indispensable components of scientific methodology as well as scientific communication. Insofar as the choice of metaphors reflects ideological commitments, all science is ideological. The philosophically vexed question is how to characterize the sense in which science is not merely ideological.

Type
Open Peer Commentary
Copyright
© 1999 Cambridge University Press

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