This transfer must...

This transfer must, however, be subject to the filter of critical scrutiny to avoid improper uses. Thirdly, Aristotle unites the æsthetic and cognitive aspects of an expression. In his Rhetorics [^26] , he also asserts that learning and admiring are sources of pleasure[^27] . What does Aristotle mean by a proper metaphor or comparison?

We may recall here the passage from Poetics [^28] defining four types of metaphorical expression bearing in mind that he goes on to say that ‘of the four kinds of metaphor the most taking is the proportional kind’. It is therefore clear that an image is proper insofar as it is based upon an objective proportional analogy and expresses a real similarity allowing us the information transfer from one pole to the other. What, then, became of the creative aspect of metaphor?

Did it turn out to be a mere discovery? Is this kind of knowledge not simply a mirror or nature? The concept of creative, or poietic, discovery is used by Haley[^29] as an intermediate between the traditional and interactionist views of metaphor. According to the former, true metaphor is just a discovery of underlying similarities, where the cognitive subject has a rather passive function - it is a mirror of nature.

Interactionism, on the other hand, proclaims metaphoric creativity, with a subject that creates a web of connections, organizing reality in an active way. Nevertheless, this view fails to provide a clear account of the constraints affecting the creation, interpretation and evaluation of figures. Indurkhya is also aware of this shortcoming and seeks to solve it.

In my opinion, however, finding a solution to this problem depends on the acknowledgement of the objective pole, that is, real similarities that one can either discover or fail to discover. Yet nothing in the expression itself allows for mechanical decoding, for a metaphor works or not according to the interpreter, to his background, and his creativity in building conjectures. It also depends on the world itself, on the potential (but real ) similarities between entities dwelling in it.

What then, could possibly constitute a creative discovery? We shall see. Similarities uncovered by true metaphorical expressions are real. There are objective constraints existing as possibilities in entities - any two entities either have or do not have the potential to be seen as similar in some respect by a given cognitive subject. We cannot, however, rest on any special intuitive faculty for similarities.