Metaphors in Science

We analyze critically the most important contemporary conceptions of metaphors in science, i.e., those proposed by Max Black, Rom Harré, Thomas S. Kuhn, and Donald Davidson. We also present an alternative view on the metaphor essence. This view states that a metaphor is the conclusion of deductive reasoning; its premises are a description of the secondary object of the metaphor and the thesis on similarity between the secondary and primary objects. The metaphorical character is created by referring in the metaphor exposition to the whole reasoning and to its usual elliptic character