The greatness and the poverty of metaphor

The article poses a question about the ontic status of metaphorical statements. The answer to this question will affect not only the way of understanding metaphor itself, but will ultimately also affect the shape of anthropological research (including the study of religion). The starting point for these considerations is Ricoeur's theory of metaphorical expressions, which draws on the interactive school of reflection on metaphor (Ivor Armstrong Richards, Max Black, Monroe C. Beardsley). Research on the ontic status of metaphor is founded on the distinction between the sense and the reference of a metaphorical statement. The key thesis around which these considerations revolve is as follows: metaphorical expressions say something new about reality. The text ends with analyses devoted to the question of the truthfulness of metaphorical statements.