METAPHORS

In this work translated from Spanish, images highlight metaphors used by philosophers from antiquity to modern times to clarify the nature of reality and the search for knowledge.

The authors’ pithy observations construct a history of philosophical ideas filtered through concrete metaphors employed by 24 philosophers, whose profiles appear in chronological order, each accompanied by an icon that encapsulates the central concept, such as a keyhole for Søren Kierkegaard’s section entitled “Secret.” Beginning with Heraclitus, who noted that “no one ever steps in the same river twice,” and going on to Plato’s cave, Karl Marx’s “opium of the people,” and Hannah Arendt’s vision of the broad desert separating us from others, the authors largely focus on philosophers of European origin or descent. One notable exception is Laozi, who “originally referred to the shady (yin) and the sunny (yang) sides of a mountain or the banks of a river.” The entries for Edward Said and Judith Butler offer perspective-broadening nods to, respectively, postcolonial thought and feminist theory. The book closes with Zygmunt Bauman’s daring assertion that “liquidity of life and that of society feed and reinvigorate each other.” Each entry, consisting of a single page of text, is accompanied by one of Tió’s striking, full-page illustrations in saturated colors showing tiny, usually solitary, figures confronting immense rugged landscapes or vast expanses of wilderness. This work is dense and complex enough to challenge college-bound and college-level deep thinkers.

Approaches big questions from an unusual and enlightening angle.