Abstract

Scientific metaphor builds a bridge between the given and representation, evidence and guess, convention and hypothesis, and makes it possible for scientists to stride forward from direct and immediate scientific facts and materials of empirical observation to possible and reasonable theoretical construction. It also sets up a springboard to finally realize creative leaps of scientific theories. In this way, scientific metaphor can surmount one-dimensional literal meaning and pure empirical criteria, dispel the stable referential theory and ossified logical construction, and get rid of the logical limits and bounds of the strict causal determinism. It deserves notice that some critics of scientific metaphor attempt to deny the methodological significance of metaphor by citing certain metaphorical cases that have failed in the history of science. However, we cannot take these cases to be the evidence of the whole failure of metaphor in methodology. Every scientific tradition has applied metaphor in different ways to achieve its descriptive function. The effective use of this special resource has great methodological significance and value.