This essay analyzes the metaphor as a specific way of knowing theworld and treats it as a chapter of epistemology rather than ofSemantics. It reviews concepts already developed by Aristotle andQuintiliano, among others, and refuses to accept metaphor as thetransposition of sense or the comparison of two referential domains.It suggests a new view based on the work of Max Black for whomlanguage is seen more as an interactive activity than a system ofsigns. In sum, from a genetic point of view, it defends the thesisthat the metaphor is an a priori synthesis: it is based on the intuitivecreative capacity and not on logical or analytic thought.