Metaphor and Philosophy in Derrida and Ricoeur

In “White Mythology”, Derrida deals with the role of metaphors in philosophy, and how philosophy defines metaphor. He believes that when philosophers define metaphor, they reduce it to the nominal metaphor, and this shows that they try to subject it under the concept. This is for Derrida an example of philosophy’s reductionist confrontation with its others. But Derrida deconstruct the distinction between the concept as the element of philosophy and the metaphor as the element of literature. For him, the concept and all philosophical concepts are basically metaphors, and the movement of metaphor is the movement of genesis of philosophical concepts. Riceour in “Metaphor and Philosophical Discourse” criticizes Derrida fiercely, and claims that the distinction between the discourses is what our tradition gave us, and Derrida neglects the important distinction between philosophical discourse and poetic discourse. The so called deconstruction of binary oppositions in Derrida mélanges the distinct discourses. Riceour himself tries to show the origin of the distinction between philosophical and poetic discourses in the work of Aristotle, especially about the concept of analogy. He finally concludes that an excact distinction takes form in the point of closeness of two discourses.