Department of Classics, Humboldt-Universität zu Berlin, Berlin, Germany.
Hist Philos Life Sci. 2021 Aug 18;43(3):101. doi: 10.1007/s40656-021-00450-2.
Metaphors play a crucial role in the understanding of science. Since antiquity, metaphors have been used in technical texts to describe structures unknown or unnamed; besides establishing a terminology of science, metaphors are also important for the expression of concepts. However, a concise terminology to classify metaphors in the language of science has not been established yet. But in the context of studying the history of a science and its concepts, a precise typology of metaphors can be helpful. Metaphors have a lot in common with models in science, as has been observed already. In this paper, therefore, I suggest a typology of metaphor in ancient science to fill this terminological gap by using concepts applied to the classification of models in science, as coined by Rom Harré. I propose to differentiate between homeoconceptual metaphors (with the same conceptual frame between source and target) and paraconceptual metaphors (mapped via a different conceptual frame). Furthermore, functional and structural aspects of metaphors in ancient science are taken into account. Case studies from ancient texts displaying metaphors in ancient science are presented and classified following the outlined typology of metaphors.
隐喻在科学理解中起着至关重要的作用。自古以来，隐喻就被用于技术文本中，以描述未知或未命名的结构；除了建立科学术语外，隐喻对于概念的表达也很重要。然而，目前尚未建立用于分类科学语言中隐喻的简洁术语。但是，在研究科学及其概念的历史背景下，准确的隐喻类型学可能会有所帮助。正如已经观察到的那样，隐喻与科学中的模型有很多共同之处。因此，在本文中，我建议通过使用 Rom Harré 提出的应用于科学模型分类的概念，为古代科学中的隐喻建立一种类型学，以填补这一术语上的空白。我建议区分同概念隐喻（源和目标之间具有相同的概念框架）和异概念隐喻（通过不同的概念框架映射）。此外，还考虑了古代科学中隐喻的功能和结构方面。本文呈现了来自古代文本的案例研究，并根据所概述的隐喻类型学对其进行了分类。
