Metaphor and narrative reconfiguration. An example in the French physiology of the late nineteenth century

In this paper we reflect on the role of metaphors and stories in the construction of models intended not as tools to illustrate the formal properties of the theory, but as an essential part of both discovery and theoretical explanation. We will start precisely from the relationship between metaphor and narrative, which does not seem at all obvious in the recent cognitivist studies, and which we consider crucial to specify the affinity between models and metaphors on one side, and models and stories on the other. We will focus on two perspectives: Max Black’s interaction view, as we deem that it highlights the narrative reconfiguration generated by metaphors; and the concept of metaphors and narrative developed by Paul Ricœur, which seems to clarify an essential point, that is, that certain potentialities of metaphors emerge only if we consider them to be a little story, and that certain potentialities of narratives emerge only if the metaphorical processes within them are understood. We will also look at some developments of the concept that, starting with Black, brings metaphors close to scientific models, especially observing the role played by the concept of “heuristic fiction”. Finally, I will reconstruct an emblematic case of the relationship between scientific models and metaphors, underlining how it is precisely a metaphor that shapes the new image of life promoted by Claude Bernard in the context of nineteenth-century biology. However, we will also see that it is not an isolated metaphor, but a metaphor that is connected with other metaphors, producing a narrative reconfiguration that completely remodels the vision of organisms.