An incisive examination of metaphor; the theory of philosophical discourse; and a close analysis of texts by Martin Heidegger and Jacques Derrida for what they reveal about both metaphor and philosophical discourse. Stellardi also includes a discussion of the fundamental debate on metaphor between Derrida and Paul Ricoeur, and a detailed examination of philosophy as a "mode of discourse" among (and in relation to) others. The result is an idea of philosophy as essentially imperfect and self-destructive, and yet indispensable in the economy of the modes of discourse. (Publisher Book Description) Acknowledgments 13 Introduction 15 Field 19 Philosophical Theories of Metaphor 23 Usage of Metaphors in Philosophy 28 Relationship between Metaphor and Philosophy 31 Motives 32 Philosophy before Metaphor 33 Metaphor As Philosophy's Problem 34 Directions 37 Theory of Metaphor 38 Theory of Philosophical Discourse 38 Heidegger, Derrida: Imperfect Thoughts 38 Notes 40 Of Metaphor 43 Preliminary Questions 43 Beyond the Traditional Model 47 Labels and Metaphors 47 Toward a Description of Metaphor 49 The Mechanism of Metaphor 51 Definitions 51 The Trait 56 Text, Context, Reader 57 The "Other'' of Metaphor 59 Notes 65 The Ricoeur-Derrida Debate 70 Philosophy within Metaphor? 70 The Living Metaphor 78 The Retreat and the Catastrophe 91 Some Questions 99 Metaphors and Indecidables 105 Cumbersome Metaphors 105 Derrida's Operation 108 Impossible Foundations 111 Conclusion? 114 Notes 117 Position of the Problem and Initial Questions 128 Delimiting the Field 134 Operative Notion of Metaphor 134 Sample of Texts 135 Metaphor in Unterwegs zur Sprache 136 Heidegger and Metaphor 140 Grayness 141 Suffering 143 Control 145 The Structure and Function of Heidegger's Metaphor 148 The Structure of "Die Sprache'' 153 Textual Articulations 154 Logico-rhetorical Resources 155 Metaphors 156 The Poem 156 Silence and the Word 162 The Thought of Difference 165 Poetry and Thought 170 Heidegger's Operation 174 Grayness or Bliss? 177 Notes 182 Of Philosophy 193 Philosophy among the Modes of Discourse 194 Modes of Discourse 194 Analysis of Variables 198 Modes of Discourse and Metaphor 203 Modes of Discourse and Ethics 205 Modes of Discourse and Truth 206 Philosophical Discourse 208 Philosophical Truth and Ethics 210 Forthcoming Thought 215 Nonrepresentational Thought 218 Thought As Productive Fiction 222 Heidegger's Reader 225 Etymology, Quotation Marks, Rhetorical Question 229 Philosophy and Metaphor 232 Strategies of Deconstruction, or the Endless Death of Theory 235 Two Metaphors 235 Structuralism and Deconstruction 237 Force and Form 243 Metaphor, Theory, and Supertheory 246 Fidelity and Transgression 249 Life and Death 253 Notes 255 In Place of a Conclusion 261 Notes 265 Bibliography 267 Index 273