C. S. Lewis on Reality and Metaphor. From Myth to History and Back Again

Abstract

The role of metaphor in understanding reality has been a recurring question in the field of metaphor theory. C. S. Lewis, influential scholar, author, and Christian apologist, presents a compelling perspective on metaphor as a means of understanding reality. This paper explores Lewis’s view on the possibility of speaking about reality through metaphor. By reality, Lewis understands both the physical and the supra-physical world. The first section of this article outlines how, for Lewis, metaphorical language can depict the spiritual or supra-natural world. The second section argues that a good metaphor has a meaning that is given rather than invented and the physical realm functions as a basis to understand the spiritual realm, and that this up-down-up direction of metaphorical expression conveys it most effectively. In the third section, I show how good, meaningful metaphors are true and allow us to make valuable and true statements because they convey reliable knowledge about reality. They also require action, the work of the will towards the good, and encourage stock responses. Section four presents metaphor as a linguistic tool which can unveil a connection between the observable physical world and the non-observable world. Additionally, the article briefly examines the disparities between Lewis’s views and some dominant philosophical trends, as well as two theories of metaphor, the interaction theory and the conceptual theory. The choice of these two theories of metaphor is based on their particular differences with Lewis’s view on two key aspects that are fundamental to the theory of metaphor, namely, meaning and truth.