Paul Ricoeur’s Metaphoric Process as the Khōra of the Timaeus

Abstract

In this paper, I offer a comparative study of Paul Ricoeur’s analyses of metaphor and the role of the khōra in Plato’s Timaeus. My goal is twofold. First, I show that both metaphors and the khōra play a role in the structuration of the world and the possibility of its knowability. This role is much more significant than a merely ornamental or residual or subsidiary function. Second, I argue for a reading of Ricoeur and of Plato on which Ricoeur’s metaphorical process and the work of the khōra are closely aligned. The result is that I both offer a new view of the khōra and also explain how and why, on my view, the khōra already contains structural elements of the metaphorical process that Ricoeur works out.