metaphor

nationality

American

occupation / innovator as

gallerist

philosopher

scientific organization

American Academy of Arts and Sciences

university teacher

is that which provides vivacity. The less conscious we are of a metaphor's metaphorical nature, it becomes not less, but more like literal truth. What vanishes is not its veracity but its vivacity.

One of the ironies of etymology is that the less conscious we are of a metaphor as a metaphor, the more literal it becomes, a paradox observed by Nelson Goodman: 'With progressive loss of its virility51 as a figure of speech, a metaphor becomes not less but more like literal truth. What vanishes is not its veracity but its vivacity.'

Nelson GoodmanThinkers

Nelson Goodman