Polemics: Fitting Metaphors - The Case of the European Union
Polemics: Fitting Metaphors - The Case of the European Union

Summary/Abstract: Across many fields, scholars study metaphors, often starting with Aristotle, as I do here. Aristotle saw that we use metaphors to persuade others to accept or act on what we say-they are performative. By virtue of use, metaphors are concepts in the making; concepts are metaphors that we no longer recognize as such. Our represenatitions of the world, however fitting in the moment, are never fully of finally fixed. Metaphors orient us in space and time, express awareness of our bodies, and reflect our relations with other embodied beings. In International Relations, scholars ignore these distinctions and find only a few metaphors worthy of attention. Petr Drulák's work on motion, container and equilibrium metaphors is an example which I discuss with some care because his view of metaphors as sedimented in time and use is close to my own. I then suggest other metaphors that better fit the experience of the European Union than Drulák's choices.

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