Abstract

ONUF, Nicholas. Excavating "international community": toward a metaphorical archeology of knowledge. Contexto int. [online]. 2010, vol.32, n.2, pp. 253-296. ISSN 0102-8529.  http://dx.doi.org/10.1590/S0102-85292010000200001.

In this paper, I claim that metaphor and concept are names for the same kind of thing. And if this is so, metaphor is a metaphor for concept; concept is a metaphor for metaphor. An archeology of metaphorical knowledge is a metaphorical expression for a set of claims and procedures designed to expose the buried assumptions and associations constituting (and by constituting, regulating) what we think we know. The affective and normative resonances of metaphors related to "community" speak to a deep yearning in a world where communities no longer resemble what they once did. "International community" is an above-ground archeological site, as prominent as it is unexplored. Its excavation may take us to some distant past only to bring us back to the very world we live in.

Keywords : Archeology; Metaphors; Foucault; International Community; International Society.