Metaphors of consciousness in philosophical discourse

Thinkers throughout the history of philosophy applied metaphor in order to describe phenomenon of consciousness and cognitive process in general. The article gives a brief historico-philosophical introduction which is helpful with identifying certain epistemological grounds for applying metaphors. The main emphasis is made on the category «reflection» which was developed in the context of dialectical materialism. A thorough analysis of the metaphor «reflection» was made in the article, which gives us a number of conclusions about the role of metaphorical processes in philosophical discourse. A number of metaphorical functions was discovered which are nominative, explanatory and cognitive. The latter function has a crucial importance for the philosophy that requires further study in this area. On the basis of proposed analysis we can speak about the exceptional role of the metaphor in the construction of the fundamental theoretical systems, where it acts as a verbal component of the process of cognition. It is confirmed that the metaphor is a mechanism that allows the language to overcome its limitations in the way of infinite cognition of the world.