Metaphors Or Arguments

*Metaphors or Arguments*

Metaphors are an important ingredient to speech and argument. It is used to show comparison between two things, a way to create new meaning. Niccolт Machiavelli in his book The Prince discuss of social and political along with his creative usage of metaphors. His ideas consist of Medicine, the Fox and the Lion, as well as The Archer. These are the metaphors that I will be discussing as we go in more debt about Machiavelli and James Kastely thoughts of argument. Machiavelli on the other hand may have used these metaphors as arguments. He does not imply it directly, but his twist and turns of his writing may be comparable to Kastely arguments about "rendering the indeterminate determinate" but not quite so with the argument about "meaningful disagreement"; most of Machiavelli's ideas are straight forward with no questions asked type of deal.

Machiavelli metaphors are not much of an argument. Kastely implies that "The necessary prerequisite for an argument is meaningful disagreement." This means that there has to be two different logical ideas opposing one another. Machiavelli's ideas are more direct rather than as an argument. He shows his ideas with force, a strange way of thinking, he scares the reader into thinking there is no better way to do things but his way.

Chapter III, Machiavelli uses medicine as a metaphor to show that it is best to react sooner than later. "For once problems are recognized ahead of time, they can be easily cured; but if you wait for them to present themselves, the medicine will be too late, for the disease will have become incurable." With Kastely's point of argument, "The point of an argument is not to silence an opponent but to use disagreements as an opportunity to explore the commitments and possibilities inhering a situation." If I'm not wrong, Machiavelli's metaphors along with Kastely's argument are comparable. Machiavelli had said to deal with problems early before it gets worst; in other words, he is silencing a situation before it occurs. It is like a King protecting his palace and kingdom from war. If he is acknowledged of the attack why wait till it happens. Take action to protect the palace and kingdom early by applying more defenses or even attacking the enemies first. By applying defense or attacks on the enemy, you silence the situation before it even occurs.

Chapter XVIII, Machiavelli describes the Fox and the Lion as his metaphor. "prince must know how to make good use of the nature of the beast.....he should choose from among the fox and the lion; for the lion cannot defend itself from traps and the fox cannot protect itself from wolves. It is therefore necessary to be a fox in order to recognize the traps and a lion in order to frighten the wolves." Machiavelli in this chapter describes how necessary it is for a person to have instincts of two kinds. You can't be a powerful leader if you don't know how to win a war, and you can't be a smart leader if you cannot get out of one. Kastely argues "We argue by description, by narration, by types of inference, by ethical embodiment, and by other means.....acknowledge