Metaphor or delusion? A mimamsaka's response to conceptual metaphor theory

Abstract

Conceptual Metaphor Theory (CMT), an approach to human thought and language that began with the work of Lakoff and Johnson (1980), claims that metaphor is not merely a linguistic phenomenon, but is implicated in structuring human thought. On this view, that people use words like "attack" and "defend" to describe argumentative moves demonstrates that they think of argument as a kind of war. This is opposed to the view that some words like "attack" are polysemous, sometimes meaning to engage in physical warfare and sometimes meaning to argue against a position. One implication of CMT is that nearly all human concepts are understood metaphorically, so that reasoning about argumentation turns out to involve concepts of war.