Aristotele e la metafora: ovvero un elogio dell’approssimazione

Through an analysis of the main passages of Poetics and Rethoric about metaphor, and through their comparison with the works of Organon, as well as with the Book Gamma of Metaphysics, metaphor is introduced into the most important path of Aristotelic philosophy. This path, as it is well-known, is marked by the idea that to on legetai pollachos, “the being is said in many ways”, and therefore, using Ricoeur’s famous words of The Rule of Metaphor, «the great undertaking to say the being» requires linguistic means adapted to the task. Among these tasks, metaphor is of primary importance. In fact, according to Aristotle, it is an essential means of expression of the ontological plurality which forms the world of human things, because of its ability – precise and approximate at the same time – to discover the likeness and the connections between things which, on the surface, appear very different.