The Reference of the Metaphor in Ricoeur's Hermeneutic Philosophy and in Groupe μ's General Rhetoric
Abstract
This article presents the French philosopher Paul Ricoeur's (1913-2005) theory of the metaphor and his hermeneutic starting point in contract to the Belgian semioticians of Groupe μ (formed in 1967) and their empirical starting point. Against the background of the debate between Ricoeur and Groupe μ arises the key problem of reference, which leads to the noetic problem of the objective description of structural relations in the aesthetic regime.
Their different conceptions of metaphorical reference are explained here as directly linked to the inclusion or non-inclusion of aesthetic experience (and therefore the transformation of the whole referential system) in the analysis of the structural process. The scientific methods used by Groupe μ as the initial approaches for further semiotic investigation reduce the aesthetic function of rhetorical figures in order to preserve the objectivity of the formal system.
Ricoeur's critique of the reference of Groupe μ's metaphors is justified with regard to the hermeneutic project, but provides no alternative solution. Though Groupe μ endeavoured to come up with a precise method, it did so on the basis of utterly different assumptions.
This article defends the hypothesis that in the hermeneutic circle the references have to function as initial data for the subsequent structural analysis of the referring sign.