ABSTRACT Evelyn Fox-Keller is unsurpassed in the perspicuity with which she has analysed the power of metaphor within science, to the way it defines scientific discourse, and in developing methodologies that address semantic ambiguity. This paper considers a great metaphor for science itself. The ‘Book of Nature’ idea is at least as old as Augustine, and enjoyed strong advocacy in other ages from Hugh of St. Victor, Boyle and Galileo, to name a few. Yet it is not without its dangers. The significance of ‘books’ changes with their availability, the language they are written in, the communities who are educated to read them, and their hermeneutic context. I will suggest ways that science has been construed differently following these changes in the metaphor’s meaning, including a suggestion that part of the early modern shift is from pure ‘reading’ of the Book of Nature, to writing it.

中文翻译：

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科学的元隐喻：自然之书中的真实与虚构

摘要 伊芙琳·福克斯-凯勒 (Evelyn Fox-Keller) 在分析科学中隐喻的力量、它定义科学话语的方式以及开发解决语义歧义的方法方面的清晰度无与伦比。这篇论文是对科学本身的一个很好的比喻。“自然之书”的想法至少与奥古斯丁一样古老，并且在圣维克多的休、波义耳和伽利略等其他时代得到了大力提倡。然而，它也并非没有危险。“书籍”的意义随着它们的可用性、它们所用的语言、受过阅读它们的教育的社区以及它们的解释学背景而变化。我将提出在隐喻意义发生这些变化后科学被不同解释的方式，