Denkbilder

This volume examines the use of metaphors in moral language and highlights their epistemological, communi-cative and practical significance. By examining classical and more recent metaphorological positions, it shows that metaphors are not merely rhetorical embellishments and conceptual substitutes, but independent forms of thought that open up new avenues of meaning and challenge interpretation. The second part is devoted to the exploration of exemplary metaphors in ethics. They are analysed in terms of their figurative origin, their ambivalence, their normative implications and their use in history and the present. An attempt at systematic classification and a discussion of the power and powerlessness of moral metaphors round off the volume.