“Army of Metaphors” in Scientific Discourse

Abstract

The article outlines the problem of the terminological potential of metaphor as the main figure of poetics, rhetoric, artistic and poetic thinking in general. The authors analyze numerous works about the nature and value of the metaphor; comprehend peculiarities of its use, forms and discourses of use, figurative potential of metaphorical thinking; at the same time, they emphasize on the mythological basis of such thinking (in particular, based on the works of O. Freudenberg, N. Frye, F. Nietzsche). The main focus is on the metaphorical (figurative) nature of terminology in both the humanities and the exact sciences, as well as the problem of the interpenetration of terms, in particular, scientific terms, metaphors borrowed from human sciences. The research confirms that at the present stage of development of all spheres of knowledge and science in general there is a cross-cutting penetration of metaphor at different levels: at the level of the names of theories; at the level of titles of scientific works – from ancient times to modern times; at the level of naming / defining phenomena and concepts, etc. Methodological foundation is based at the works of H. Ortega y Gasset, H. G. Gadamer and other philosophers of the twentieth century, who acknowledge the metaphor as a form of scientific thinking and cognition, at the same time see it as a marker of the spiritual space of science. The article outlines the Ukrainian experience of term-building in the context of a long-standing European tradition in combining elements of Western and Eastern approaches to the realization of reality and the transfer of knowledge. Numerous examples confirm the idea that metaphorology as a separate brunch in the 21st century is gaining momentum. Paying attention to metaphorical outview as an integral feature of human thinking (including scientific) offers new aspects and perspectives on the history of the sciences, opens the way to the convergence and interpenetration of scientific spheres, contains a number of axioms for human understanding of nature, history, world and mysteries of being.