Metaphor: An Annotated Bibliography and History by Warren A. Shibles (review)

584 BOOK REVIEWS In a thorough study of the phenomena of spiritism it was our conclusion that some 98% are attributable to fraud and deception; another 1% or more can be explained by science, including the fringe science of parapsychology . The portion of 1% which remains seems to be in the realm of the praeternatural and is best explained, in the light of Christian revelation, by the agency of the Devil or demons. As regards pastoral theology, it matters not much whether people see the Devil as a myth or as a personality-no more than it mattered practically when the microscope showed the bacterial world of activity which goes on in a drop of water. Man continues to drink the water and is normally oblivious to the life within it. Constant consciousness of this activity might create a race of neurotics. The trilogy on witchcraft published by Barnes and Noble is a definite asset in providing us with a deeper insight into the minds of the legislators, judges, and people in sixteenth-century England. For the more profound and significant questions pertaining to the historicity and causality of the alleged phenomena of witchcraft we receive no help. National Shrine of the Immaculate Conception Wt18hington, D. C. JOHN J. NICOLA Metaplwr: An Annotated Bibliography and History. By Warren A. Shibles. Whitewater, Wisconsin: The Language Press, 1971. Pp. 410. $12.50. Warren Shibles, who has previously published work on Wittgenstein and on models of classical Greek philosophy, now provides what may fairly be described as an extensive and useful research tool for the study of metaphor. Not only is the bibliography complete but it is also extensively annotated in such a way as to provide a comprehensive picture of the scholarship dealing with this complex topic in literary criticism, psychology, philosophy, and linguistics. Part I of the index lists all the major works on metaphor and related terms, such as archetype and analogy. Parts II and III list the names and ideas mentioned in each descriptive annotation. One may, for example, find listed all of Aristotle's principal statements about metaphor, including his statement in the Poetics: "The greatest thing by far is to be a master of metaphor. It is the one thing that cannot be learned from others. It is the mark of genius." Professor Shibles, in a previous work entitled An Analysis of Metaplwr, observed that metaphor is not only of the utmost importance in the analysis of poetry but is also really basic in the consideration of philosophical systems and theologies. Indeed, as Aquinas pointed out, the theologian BOOK REVIEWS 535 finds metaphor to be essential because it is a means whereby spiritual realities may be represented to the senses, and it also serves to remind us that we do not have literal description of divine truths. In his introductory essay, Professor Shibles argues that metaphor is a form of knowledge, as well as an art form that may be taught as one of the arts, rather than as an aspect of them. In his view, metaphor is likewise properly viewed as a philosophical method that enables one to see the basic metaphor in each system of knowledge and to create a variety of types of metaphorical systems. He would argue that no definition can be taken literally; all definitions are seen as meaphorical ways of organizing facts. Rejecting traditional concepts of " mind " and " imagination," he does not see the construction of metaphors or metaphorical systems as evidence of the operation of "mind" or "imagination." Consequently, all attempts to treat metaphor in this way he regards as based upon the illusion of " the traditional mindbody , inner-outer dualism." His work is professedly meant in part as a movement towards a new rhetoric, and he sees philosophy, poetry, rhetoric, and science as, to a large extent, attempts to " learn " our language. Metaphor, he seems not to deny, produces a world of "as-if." It is not a method for the building of metaphysics. But that clearly is not Professor Shibles' concern either, and he has provided students of several disciplines, at the very least, with a useful reference work. PAUL VAN K. THOMSON Providence College Providence, Rhode Island...