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Do Metaphors Affect Economic Theory?

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  • Lagueux, Maurice

Abstract

Over the last few decades, theoretical discussions about metaphors have appeared with increasing frequency in the literature and, during the last fifteen years or so, such discussions have become more and more common in the methodology of economics. But what exactly is a metaphor? According to a tradition which dates back to Aristotle, a metaphor is the attribution to one object, A, of the name (and indirectly of the qualities) of another object, B, while this name or these qualities do not properly or normally belong to A. Thus, a metaphor is present when a term used to describe (or even to name) A is a term which is already commonly used to name B (quite a different kind of entity). Defined in such a way, one must admit that metaphors are frequently found in economics as well as in other sciences. Let us consider, for example, a term like ‘elasticity’ which is extensively used by economists. According to the ordinary dictionary definition, this word designates a property of bodies by which they recover their initial form after having been submitted to a pressure; in a less technical sense, it refers to the flexibility of some bodies or to their responsiveness to pressures.

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  • Lagueux, Maurice, 1999. "Do Metaphors Affect Economic Theory?," Economics and Philosophy, Cambridge University Press, vol. 15(1), pages 1-22, April.
  • Handle: RePEc:cup:ecnphi:v:15:y:1999:i:01:p:1-22_00
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    Cited by:

    1. Hayes, William M. & Lynne, Gary D., 2004. "Towards a centerpiece for ecological economics," Ecological Economics, Elsevier, vol. 49(3), pages 287-301, July.
    2. Łukasz Hard, 2014. "Models of Mechanisms and their Role in Building Economic Explanations," Ekonomia journal, Faculty of Economic Sciences, University of Warsaw, vol. 37.
    3. Gary D. Lynne, 2002. "Agricultural Industrialization: A Metaeconomics Look at the Metaphors by which we Live," Review of Agricultural Economics, Agricultural and Applied Economics Association, vol. 24(2), pages 410-427.
    4. Walter, Gerald R., 2002. "Economics, ecology-based communities, and sustainability," Ecological Economics, Elsevier, vol. 42(1-2), pages 81-87, August.
    5. Bruce Littleboy, 2013. "Rhetoric in the spirit of Keynes: metaphors to persuade economists, students and the public about fiscal policy," Chapters, in: Jesper Jespersen & Mogens Ove Madsen (ed.), Teaching Post Keynesian Economics, chapter 7, pages 117-133, Edward Elgar Publishing.

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