前不久,在某家报纸上刊载了一篇谈“比喻的科学性”的文章,认为“象吸铁石一样吸引着我”这个比喻不符合科学。其理由是:“吸铁石”只对钢、铁之类的金属有吸引力,而对其他物质如铜、玻璃、木头、肉类没有吸引力。“我”,是人,属于肉类,吸铁石对“我”不会有吸引力。因此,说“吸铁石”吸引着“我”是不科学的。我认为这样理解比喻的科学与否是不恰当的。比喻的科学性不同于科学研究或科学论文的科学性。一个比喻符合不符合 Not long ago, a newspaper article on “scientific metaphor” published an article that considered the metaphor of “attracting me like magnetism” to be incompatible with science. The reason is that “magnetite” is attractive only to metals such as steel and iron, but not to other substances such as copper, glass, wood and meat. “I” is human, belongs to meat, and magnetite will not be attractive to “I”. Therefore, it is unscientific to say that “magnetite” attracts “me”. I think it is not appropriate to understand the science of metaphor in this way. The science of metaphor is different from the science of scientific research or scientific papers. A metaphor does not meet