In this highly-interdisciplinary volume, we systematically study the role of metaphors and analogies in (mis)shaping our understanding of the world. Metaphors and Analogies occupy a prominent place in scientific discourses, as they do in literature, humanities and at the very level of our thinking itself. But when misused they can lead us astray, blinding our understanding inexorably. How can metaphors aid us in our understanding of the world? What role do they play in our scientific discourses and in humanities? How do they help us understand and skillfully deal with our complex socio-political scenarios? Where is the dividing line between their use and abuse? Join us as we explore some of these questions in this volume.

Preface.- Introduction.- Philosophy and Sciences. Part I. Philosophy and Foundations of Sciences. 1. Syntactically recharacterizing analogies, assessing theories of assessing analogies by Jody Azzouni.- 2. The Metaphoric Sources of Scientific Innovation by Sergio F. Martínez and Natalia Carrillo.- 3. Science, Metaphors, and Memes by Peter Ludlow.- 4. Demystifying mysteries. How metaphors and analogies extend the reach of the human mind by Maarten Boudry, Michael Vlerick and Taner Edis.- Part II. Mathematics. 5. A two-level model of embodied mathematical thinking: Body schema, body image and language by Valentina Cuccio, Mario Graziano.- 6. Synthesis and similarity in science: analogy in the application of mathematics and application of mathematics to analogy by Jordi Cat.- 7. Metaphor and its catenary curves by Alice Major.- 8. Mathematical Models and Analogical Reasoning by Mark Colyvan.- Part III. Theoretical Physics. 9. Analogies and Scientific Imaging by Otávio Bueno.- 10. Analogies and Metaphors in Physics by Dennis Dieks.- 11. Is the Brain Analogous to a Quantum Measuring Apparatus? by Paavo Pylkkänen.- Part IV. Biology/Cognitive Science. 12. “Decoding information”: The abuse of personification and machine metaphors by David Ritchie.- 13. The Metaphorical Role of the Histone Code by Gry Oftedal.- 14. Analogical and non-analogical resemblance in figurative language: a cognitive-linguistic perspective by Francisco José Ruiz de Mendoza Ibáñez.- 15. Inner and Outer: FrpAom Skepticism to Understanding by Edward Witherspoon.- Humanities. Part V. Social Sciences.- 16. From words to worlds. How metaphors and language shape mental health by Francesca Brencio.- 17. Mapping friendship and friendship research: the role of analogies and metaphors by Claus Emmeche.- 18. Words and worlds of desire: the power of metaphor in framing sexuality by Veronika Koller.- 19. The Human Condition is an Ocean: Philosophy and the Mediterranean Sea by Annika Döring and Rasmus Grønfeldt Winther.- 20. Universality and/or cultural specificity of metaphors and analogies? NATIONS as BODIES/PERSONS by Andreas Musolff.- 21. Metaphors in times of a global pandemic by Brigitte Nerlich.- 22. Fluffy metaphors of an overheated debate: Why climate change is neither communicated nor understood as an existential threat? by Bálint Forgács and Csaba Pléh.- Part VI. Arts and Aesthetics. 23. Mediterranean Sea-Creature: Maritime Metaphor in the Philosophy of Friedrich Nietzsche by Annika Döring and Peregrine Horden.- 24. How to See: The Gaze in Iris Murdoch’s Moral Philosophy by Hibi Pendleton.- 25. From statics to dynamics: Intersemiotic conversion of metaphor and its consequences by Miloš Tasić & Dušan Stamenković.- 26. Form, Meaning and Intentionality: The Case of Metaphor in Music by Mihailo Antović.- 27. From Philosophy to Architecture to Philosophy: Boundary and Metaphor in Wittgenstein by Nana Last.