A clash of competing metaphors

Metaphors have three important functions in scientific discourse: heuristic , rhetorical, and epistemic. I argue that, contrary to prevailing opinion, metaphors are indispensable components of scientific methodology as well as scientific communication. Insofar as the choice of metaphors reflects ideo logical commitments, all science is ideological. The philosophically vexed question is how to characterize the sense in which science is not merely id eological.