ARISTOTLE'S USES OF METAPHOR

Abstract

This essay aims to investigate the two main uses of metaphor according to Aristotle: the poetic use and the rhetorical use. To do so, I will first seek to clarify what metaphor is according to Aristotle's works, Poetics and Rhetoric. Then, I intend to determine what are the functions, therefore the uses of this figure of speech in poetic and rhetorical production. Since the purpose of poetic discourse differs from that of rhetoric, since the former aims to produce the most beautiful statement possible and the latter, the most persuasive statement possible, certainly, the function that metaphor plays in each type of discourse will also be different. Finally, faced with the Aristotelian criticism of the use of metaphor in the formula that expresses equity, I propose the following question: if metaphor is capable of producing clarity for rhetorical or poetic expression, but obscurity for the scientific statement necessary for definition, then it would be not only useless, but an obstacle to the acquisition of knowledge?