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Analogy is a comparison or correspondence between two things (or two groups of things) because of a third element that they are considered to share. In logic, it is an
inference Inferences are steps in logical reasoning, moving from premises to logical consequences; etymologically, the word '' infer'' means to "carry forward". Inference is theoretically traditionally divided into deduction and induction, a distinct ...
or an
argument An argument is a series of sentences, statements, or propositions some of which are called premises and one is the conclusion. The purpose of an argument is to give reasons for one's conclusion via justification, explanation, and/or persu ...
from one particular to another particular, as opposed to deduction, induction, and abduction. It is also used where at least one of the
premise A premise or premiss is a proposition—a true or false declarative statement—used in an argument to prove the truth of another proposition called the conclusion. Arguments consist of a set of premises and a conclusion. An argument is meaningf ...
s, or the conclusion, is general rather than particular in nature. It has the general form ''A is to B as C is to D''. In a broader sense, analogical reasoning is a
cognitive Cognition is the "mental action or process of acquiring knowledge and understanding through thought, experience, and the senses". It encompasses all aspects of intellectual functions and processes such as: perception, attention, thought, ...
process of transferring some
information Information is an Abstraction, abstract concept that refers to something which has the power Communication, to inform. At the most fundamental level, it pertains to the Interpretation (philosophy), interpretation (perhaps Interpretation (log ...
or meaning of a particular subject (the analog, or source) onto another (the target); and also the
linguistic Linguistics is the scientific study of language. The areas of linguistic analysis are syntax (rules governing the structure of sentences), semantics (meaning), Morphology (linguistics), morphology (structure of words), phonetics (speech sounds ...
expression corresponding to such a process. The term analogy can also refer to the relation between the source and the target themselves, which is often (though not always) a similarity, as in the biological notion of analogy. Analogy plays a significant role in human thought processes. It has been argued that analogy lies at "the core of cognition".


Etymology

The English word ''analogy'' derives from the
Latin Latin ( or ) is a classical language belonging to the Italic languages, Italic branch of the Indo-European languages. Latin was originally spoken by the Latins (Italic tribe), Latins in Latium (now known as Lazio), the lower Tiber area aroun ...
'' analogia'', itself derived from the
Greek Greek may refer to: Anything of, from, or related to Greece, a country in Southern Europe: *Greeks, an ethnic group *Greek language, a branch of the Indo-European language family **Proto-Greek language, the assumed last common ancestor of all kno ...
''ἀναλογία'', "proportion", from ''ana-'' "upon, according to" lso "again", "anew"+ ''logos'' "ratio" lso "word, speech, reckoning"


Models and theories

Analogy plays a significant role in
problem solving Problem solving is the process of achieving a goal by overcoming obstacles, a frequent part of most activities. Problems in need of solutions range from simple personal tasks (e.g. how to turn on an appliance) to complex issues in business an ...
, as well as
decision making In psychology, decision-making (also spelled decision making and decisionmaking) is regarded as the cognitive process resulting in the selection of a belief or a course of action among several possible alternative options. It could be either ra ...
,
argumentation An argument is a series of sentences, statements, or propositions some of which are called premises and one is the conclusion. The purpose of an argument is to give reasons for one's conclusion via justification, explanation, and/or persu ...
,
perception Perception () is the organization, identification, and interpretation of sensory information in order to represent and understand the presented information or environment. All perception involves signals that go through the nervous syste ...
,
generalization A generalization is a form of abstraction whereby common properties of specific instances are formulated as general concepts or claims. Generalizations posit the existence of a domain or set of elements, as well as one or more common characteri ...
,
memory Memory is the faculty of the mind by which data or information is encoded, stored, and retrieved when needed. It is the retention of information over time for the purpose of influencing future action. If past events could not be remembe ...
,
creativity Creativity is the ability to form novel and valuable Idea, ideas or works using one's imagination. Products of creativity may be intangible (e.g. an idea, scientific theory, Literature, literary work, musical composition, or joke), or a physica ...
,
invention An invention is a unique or novelty (patent), novel machine, device, Method_(patent), method, composition, idea, or process. An invention may be an improvement upon a machine, product, or process for increasing efficiency or lowering cost. It m ...
, prediction,
emotion Emotions are physical and mental states brought on by neurophysiology, neurophysiological changes, variously associated with thoughts, feelings, behavior, behavioral responses, and a degree of pleasure or suffering, displeasure. There is ...
,
explanation An explanation is a set of statements usually constructed to describe a set of facts that clarifies the causes, context, and consequences of those facts. It may establish rules or laws, and clarifies the existing rules or laws in relation ...
,
conceptualization A concept is an abstract idea that serves as a foundation for more concrete principles, thoughts, and beliefs. Concepts play an important role in all aspects of cognition. As such, concepts are studied within such disciplines as linguistics, psy ...
and
communication Communication is commonly defined as the transmission of information. Its precise definition is disputed and there are disagreements about whether Intention, unintentional or failed transmissions are included and whether communication not onl ...
. It lies behind basic tasks such as the identification of places, objects and people, for example, in
face perception Facial perception is an individual's understanding and interpretation of the face. Here, perception implies the presence of consciousness and hence excludes automated facial recognition systems. Although facial recognition is found in other spe ...
and
facial recognition system A facial recognition system is a technology potentially capable of matching a human face from a digital image or a Film frame, video frame against a database of faces. Such a system is typically employed to authenticate users through ID verif ...
s. Hofstadter has argued that analogy is "the core of cognition". An analogy is not a
figure of speech A figure of speech or rhetorical figure is a word or phrase that intentionally deviates from straightforward language use or Denotation, literal meaning to produce a rhetorical or intensified effect (emotionally, aesthetically, intellectually, et ...
but a kind of thought. Specific analogical language uses
exemplification Exemplification, in the philosophy of language, is a mode of symbolization characterized by the relation between a sample and what it refers to. Description Unlike ostension, which is the act of showing or pointing to a sample, exemplification ...
, comparisons,
metaphor A metaphor is a figure of speech that, for rhetorical effect, directly refers to one thing by mentioning another. It may provide, or obscure, clarity or identify hidden similarities between two different ideas. Metaphors are usually meant to cr ...
s,
simile A simile () is a type of figure of speech that directly ''compares'' two things. Similes are often contrasted with metaphors, where similes necessarily compare two things using words such as "like", "as", while metaphors often create an implicit c ...
s,
allegories As a literary device or artistic form, an allegory is a narrative or visual representation in which a character, place, or event can be interpreted to represent a meaning with moral or political significance. Authors have used allegory throughou ...
, and
parable A parable is a succinct, didactic story, in prose or verse, that illustrates one or more instructive lessons or principles. It differs from a fable in that fables employ animals, plants, inanimate objects, or forces of nature as characters, whe ...
s, but ''not''
metonymy Metonymy () is a figure of speech in which a concept is referred to by the name of something associated with that thing or concept. For example, the word " suit" may refer to a person from groups commonly wearing business attire, such as sales ...
. Phrases like ''and so on'', ''and the like'', ''as if'', and the very word ''
like In English, the word ''like'' has a very flexible range of uses, ranging from conventional to non-standard. It can be used as a noun, verb, adverb, adjective, preposition, particle, conjunction, hedge, filler, quotative, and semi-suffix. U ...
'' also rely on an analogical understanding by the receiver of a
message A message is a unit of communication that conveys information from a sender to a receiver. It can be transmitted through various forms, such as spoken or written words, signals, or electronic data, and can range from simple instructions to co ...
including them. Analogy is important not only in
ordinary language Ordinary language philosophy (OLP) is a philosophical methodology that sees traditional philosophical problems as rooted in misunderstandings philosophers develop by distorting or forgetting how words are ordinarily used to convey meaning in ...
and
common sense Common sense () is "knowledge, judgement, and taste which is more or less universal and which is held more or less without reflection or argument". As such, it is often considered to represent the basic level of sound practical judgement or know ...
(where
proverb A proverb (from ) or an adage is a simple, traditional saying that expresses a perceived truth based on common sense or experience. Proverbs are often metaphorical and are an example of formulaic speech, formulaic language. A proverbial phrase ...
s and
idiom An idiom is a phrase or expression that largely or exclusively carries a Literal and figurative language, figurative or non-literal meaning (linguistic), meaning, rather than making any literal sense. Categorized as formulaic speech, formulaic ...
s give many examples of its application) but also in
science Science is a systematic discipline that builds and organises knowledge in the form of testable hypotheses and predictions about the universe. Modern science is typically divided into twoor threemajor branches: the natural sciences, which stu ...
,
philosophy Philosophy ('love of wisdom' in Ancient Greek) is a systematic study of general and fundamental questions concerning topics like existence, reason, knowledge, Value (ethics and social sciences), value, mind, and language. It is a rational an ...
,
law Law is a set of rules that are created and are enforceable by social or governmental institutions to regulate behavior, with its precise definition a matter of longstanding debate. It has been variously described as a science and as the ar ...
and the
humanities Humanities are academic disciplines that study aspects of human society and culture, including Philosophy, certain fundamental questions asked by humans. During the Renaissance, the term "humanities" referred to the study of classical literature a ...
. The concepts of association, comparison, correspondence,
mathematical Mathematics is a field of study that discovers and organizes methods, Mathematical theory, theories and theorems that are developed and Mathematical proof, proved for the needs of empirical sciences and mathematics itself. There are many ar ...
and morphological homology,
homomorphism In algebra, a homomorphism is a morphism, structure-preserving map (mathematics), map between two algebraic structures of the same type (such as two group (mathematics), groups, two ring (mathematics), rings, or two vector spaces). The word ''homo ...
,
iconicity In functional- cognitive linguistics, as well as in semiotics, iconicity is the conceived similarity or analogy between the form of a sign (linguistic or otherwise) and its meaning, as opposed to arbitrariness (which is typically assumed i ...
,
isomorphism In mathematics, an isomorphism is a structure-preserving mapping or morphism between two structures of the same type that can be reversed by an inverse mapping. Two mathematical structures are isomorphic if an isomorphism exists between the ...
, metaphor, resemblance, and similarity are closely related to analogy. In
cognitive linguistics Cognitive linguistics is an interdisciplinary branch of linguistics, combining knowledge and research from cognitive science, cognitive psychology, neuropsychology and linguistics. Models and theoretical accounts of cognitive linguistics are cons ...
, the notion of conceptual metaphor may be equivalent to that of analogy. Analogy is also a basis for any comparative arguments as well as experiments whose results are transmitted to objects that have been not under examination (e.g., experiments on rats when results are applied to humans). Analogy has been studied and discussed since
classical antiquity Classical antiquity, also known as the classical era, classical period, classical age, or simply antiquity, is the period of cultural History of Europe, European history between the 8th century BC and the 5th century AD comprising the inter ...
by philosophers, scientists, theologists and
law Law is a set of rules that are created and are enforceable by social or governmental institutions to regulate behavior, with its precise definition a matter of longstanding debate. It has been variously described as a science and as the ar ...
yers. The last few decades have shown a renewed interest in analogy, most notably in
cognitive science Cognitive science is the interdisciplinary, scientific study of the mind and its processes. It examines the nature, the tasks, and the functions of cognition (in a broad sense). Mental faculties of concern to cognitive scientists include percep ...
.


Development

*
Aristotle Aristotle (; 384–322 BC) was an Ancient Greek philosophy, Ancient Greek philosopher and polymath. His writings cover a broad range of subjects spanning the natural sciences, philosophy, linguistics, economics, politics, psychology, a ...
identified analogy in works such as
Metaphysics Metaphysics is the branch of philosophy that examines the basic structure of reality. It is traditionally seen as the study of mind-independent features of the world, but some theorists view it as an inquiry into the conceptual framework of ...
and
Nicomachean Ethics The ''Nicomachean Ethics'' (; , ) is Aristotle's best-known work on ethics: the science of the good for human life, that which is the goal or end at which all our actions aim. () It consists of ten sections, referred to as books, and is closely ...
*
Roman Roman or Romans most often refers to: *Rome, the capital city of Italy *Ancient Rome, Roman civilization from 8th century BC to 5th century AD *Roman people, the people of Roman civilization *Epistle to the Romans, shortened to Romans, a letter w ...
lawyers used analogical reasoning and the Greek word ''analogia''. * In Islamic logic, analogical reasoning was used for the process of
qiyas Qiyas (, , ) is the process of deductive analogy in which the teachings of the hadith are compared and contrasted with those of the Quran in Islamic jurisprudence, in order to apply a known injunction ('' nass'') to a new circumstance and cre ...
in Islamic
sharia Sharia, Sharī'ah, Shari'a, or Shariah () is a body of religious law that forms a part of the Islamic tradition based on Islamic holy books, scriptures of Islam, particularly the Quran, Qur'an and hadith. In Islamic terminology ''sharīʿah'' ...
law and fiqh jurisprudence. * Medieval lawyers distinguished ''analogia legis'' and ''analogia iuris'' (see below). * The Middle Ages saw an increased use and theorization of analogy. * In Christianity, Christian scholasticism, scholastic theology, analogical arguments were accepted in order to explain the attributes of God. ** Thomas Aquinas, Aquinas made a distinction between ''equivocal'', ''univocal'' and ''analogical'' terms, the last being those like ''healthy'' that have different but related meanings. Not only a person can be "healthy", but also the food that is good for health (see the contemporary distinction between polysemy and homonymy). ** Thomas Cajetan wrote an influential treatise on analogy. In all of these cases, the wide Platonic and Aristotelian notion of analogy was preserved. Cajetan named several kinds of analogy that had been used but previously unnamed, particularly: * Analogy of attribution (''analogia attributionis'') or improper proportionality, e.g., "This food is healthy." * Analogy of proportionality (''analogia proportionalitatis'') or proper proportionality, e.g., "2 is to 1 as 4 is to 2", or "the goodness of humans is relative to their essence as the goodness of God is relative to God's essence." * Metaphor, e.g., steely determination.


Identity of relation

In ancient
Greek Greek may refer to: Anything of, from, or related to Greece, a country in Southern Europe: *Greeks, an ethnic group *Greek language, a branch of the Indo-European language family **Proto-Greek language, the assumed last common ancestor of all kno ...
the word ''αναλογια'' (''analogia'') originally meant Proportionality (mathematics), proportionality, in the mathematical sense, and it was indeed sometimes translated to Latin as ''proportio''. Analogy was understood as identity of relation between any two ordered pairs, whether of mathematical nature or not. Analogy and abstraction are different cognitive processes, and analogy is often an easier one. This analogy is not comparing ''all'' the properties between a hand and a foot, but rather comparing the ''relationship'' between a hand and its palm to a foot and its sole. While a hand and a foot have many dissimilarities, the analogy focuses on their similarity in having an inner surface. The same notion of analogy was used in the United States, US-based SAT college admission tests, that included "analogy questions" in the form "A is to B as C is to ''what''?" For example, "Hand is to palm as foot is to ____?" These questions were usually given in the Aristotle, Aristotelian format: HAND : PALM : : FOOT : ____ While most competent English language, English speakers will immediately give the right answer to the analogy question (''sole''), it is more difficult to identify and describe the exact relation that holds both between pairs such as ''hand'' and ''palm'', and between ''foot'' and ''sole''. This relation is not apparent in some lexical definitions of ''palm'' and ''sole'', where the former is defined as ''the inner surface of the hand'', and the latter as ''the underside of the foot''. Immanuel Kant, Kant's ''Critique of Judgment'' held to this notion of analogy, arguing that there can be exactly the same Logic of relatives, relation between two completely different objects.


Shared abstraction

Greek philosophers such as Plato and
Aristotle Aristotle (; 384–322 BC) was an Ancient Greek philosophy, Ancient Greek philosopher and polymath. His writings cover a broad range of subjects spanning the natural sciences, philosophy, linguistics, economics, politics, psychology, a ...
used a wider notion of analogy. They saw analogy as a shared abstraction.Shelley 2003 Analogous objects did not share necessarily a relation, but also an idea, a pattern, a regularity, an attribute, an effect or a philosophy. These authors also accepted that comparisons, metaphors and "images" (allegories) could be used as arguments, and sometimes they called them ''analogies''. Analogies should also make those abstractions easier to understand and give confidence to those who use them. James Francis Ross in ''Portraying Analogy'' (1982), the first substantive examination of the topic since Cajetan's ''De Nominum Analogia'', demonstrated that analogy is a systematic and universal feature of natural languages, with identifiable and law-like characteristics which explain how the meanings of words in a sentence are interdependent.


Special case of induction

Ibn Taymiyya,, pp. 16–36 Francis Bacon (philosopher), Francis Bacon and later John Stuart Mill argued that analogy is simply a special case of induction. In their view, analogy is an induction (philosophy), inductive inference from common known attributes to another probability, probable common attribute, which is known about only in the source of the analogy, in the following form: ;Premises :''a'' is C, D, E, F, G : ''b'' is C, D, E, F ;Conclusion : ''b'' is probably G.


Shared structure

Contemporary cognitive scientists use a wide notion of analogy, Extension (semantics), extensionally close to that of Plato and Aristotle, but framed by Gentner's (1983) structure-mapping theory. The same idea of Map (mathematics), mapping between source and target is used by conceptual metaphor and conceptual blending theorists. Structure mapping theory concerns both psychology and computer science. According to this view, analogy depends on the mapping or alignment of the elements of source and target. The mapping takes place not only between objects, but also between relations of objects and between relations of relations. The whole mapping yields the assignment of a predicate or a relation to the target. Structure mapping theory has been applied and has found considerable confirmation in psychology. It has had reasonable success in computer science and artificial intelligence (see below). Some studies extended the approach to specific subjects, such as
metaphor A metaphor is a figure of speech that, for rhetorical effect, directly refers to one thing by mentioning another. It may provide, or obscure, clarity or identify hidden similarities between two different ideas. Metaphors are usually meant to cr ...
and similarity.


Applications and types


Logic

Logicians analyze how analogical reasoning is used in Argument from analogy, arguments from analogy. An analogy can be stated using ''is to'' and ''as'' when representing the analogous relationship between two pairs of expressions, for example, "Smile is to mouth, as wink is to eye." In the field of mathematics and logic, this can be formalized with Colon (punctuation)#Mathematics and logic, colon notation to represent the relationships, using single colon for ratio, and double colon for equality. In the field of testing, the colon notation of ratios and equality is often borrowed, so that the example above might be rendered, "Smile : mouth :: wink : eye" and pronounced the same way.


Linguistics

In historical linguistics and word formation, analogy is the process that alters words-forms perceived as breaking rules or ignoring general patterns to more typical forms that follow them. For example, the English language, English verb ''wiktionary:help, help'' once had the simple past-tense form ''holp'' and the past participle form ''holpen''. These older forms have now been discarded and replaced by ''helped'', which came about through the analogy that many other past-tense forms use the ''-ed'' ending (''jumped'', ''carried'', ''defeated'', etc.). This is called morphological leveling. Analogies do not always lead to words shifting to fit rules; sometimes, they can also leading to the breaking of rules; one example is the Comparison of American and British English#Verb morphology, American English past tense form of ''wiktionary:dive, dive'': ''dove'', formed on analogy with words such as ''drive'' to ''drove'' or ''strive'' to ''strove''. * Neologisms (new words) can also be formed by analogy with existing words. A good example is ''software'', formed by analogy with ''computer hardware, hardware''; other analogous neologisms such as ''firmware'' and ''vaporware, vapourware'' have followed. Another example is the humorous term ''underwhelm'', formed by analogy with ''overwhelm''. * Some people present analogy as an alternative to generative linguistics, generative ''rules'' for explaining the Productive (linguistics), productive formation of structures such as words. Others argue that they are in fact the same and that rules are analogies that have essentially become standard parts of the linguistic system, whereas clearer cases of analogy have simply not (yet) done so (e.g. Langacker 1987.445–447). This view agrees with the current views of analogy in cognitive science which are discussed above. Analogy is also a term used in the Neogrammarian school of thought as a Umbrella term, catch-all to describe any morphological change in a language that cannot be explained merely sound change or borrowing.


Science

Analogies are mainly used as a means of creating new ideas and hypotheses, or testing them, which is called a heuristic function of analogical reasoning. Analogical arguments can also be probative, meaning that they serve as a means of proving the rightness of particular theses and theories. This application of analogical reasoning in science is debatable. Analogy can help prove important theories, especially in those kinds of science in which logical proof, logical or empirical proof is not possible such as theology,
philosophy Philosophy ('love of wisdom' in Ancient Greek) is a systematic study of general and fundamental questions concerning topics like existence, reason, knowledge, Value (ethics and social sciences), value, mind, and language. It is a rational an ...
or cosmology when it relates to those areas of the cosmos (the universe) that are beyond any data-based observation and knowledge about them stems from the human insight and thinking outside the senses. Analogy can be used in theoretical and applied sciences in the form of models or simulations which can be considered as strong indications of probable correctness. Other, much weaker, analogies may also assist in understanding and describing nuanced or key functional behaviours of systems that are otherwise difficult to grasp or prove. For instance, an analogy used in physics textbooks Hydraulic analogy, compares electrical circuits to hydraulic circuits. Another example is the analog ear, analogue ear based on electrical, electronic or mechanical devices.


Mathematics

Some types of analogies can have a precise mathematical formulation through the concept of
isomorphism In mathematics, an isomorphism is a structure-preserving mapping or morphism between two structures of the same type that can be reversed by an inverse mapping. Two mathematical structures are isomorphic if an isomorphism exists between the ...
. In detail, this means that if two mathematical structures are of the same type, an analogy between them can be thought of as a bijection which preserves some or all of the relevant structure. For example, \mathbb^2 and \mathbb are isomorphic as vector spaces, but the complex numbers, \mathbb , have more structure than \mathbb^2 does: \mathbb is a Field (mathematics), field as well as a vector space. Category theory takes the idea of mathematical analogy much further with the concept of functors. Given two categories C and D, a functor ''f'' from C to D can be thought of as an analogy between C and D, because ''f'' has to map objects of C to objects of D and arrows of C to arrows of D in such a way that the structure of their respective parts is preserved. This is similar to the #Shared structure, structure mapping theory of analogy of Dedre Gentner, because it formalises the idea of analogy as a function which makes certain conditions true.


Artificial intelligence

A computer algorithm has achieved human-level performance on multiple-choice analogy questions from the SAT test. The algorithm measures the similarity of relations between pairs of words (e.g., the similarity between the pairs HAND:PALM and FOOT:SOLE) by statistically analysing a large collection of text. It answers SAT questions by selecting the choice with the highest relational similarity. The analogical reasoning in the human mind is free of the false inferences plaguing conventional artificial intelligence models, (called ''systematicity''). Steven Phillips and William H. Wilson use category theory to mathematically demonstrate how such reasoning could arise naturally by using relationships between the internal arrows that keep the internal structures of the categories rather than the mere relationships between the objects (called "representational states"). Thus, the mind, and more intelligent AIs, may use analogies between domains whose internal structures natural transformation, transform naturally and reject those that do not. Keith Holyoak and Paul Thagard (1997) developed their multiconstraint theory within structure mapping theory. They defend that the "coherence theory of truth, coherence" of an analogy depends on structural consistency, semantic similarity and purpose. Structural consistency is the highest when the analogy is an
isomorphism In mathematics, an isomorphism is a structure-preserving mapping or morphism between two structures of the same type that can be reversed by an inverse mapping. Two mathematical structures are isomorphic if an isomorphism exists between the ...
, although lower levels can be used as well. Similarity demands that the mapping connects similar elements and relationships between source and target, at any level of abstraction. It is the highest when there are identical relations and when connected elements have many identical attributes. An analogy achieves its purpose if it helps solve the problem at hand. The multiconstraint theory faces some difficulties when there are multiple sources, but these can be overcome. Hummel and Holyoak (2005) recast the multiconstraint theory within a Artificial neural network, neural network architecture. A problem for the multiconstraint theory arises from its concept of similarity, which, in this respect, is not obviously different from analogy itself. Computer applications demand that there are some ''identical'' attributes or relations at some level of abstraction. The model was extended (Doumas, Hummel, and Sandhofer, 2008) to learn relations from unstructured examples (providing the only current account of how symbolic representations can be learned from examples). Mark Keane (cognitive scientist), Mark Keane and Brayshaw (1988) developed their ''Incremental Analogy Machine'' (IAM) to include working memory constraints as well as structural, semantic and pragmatic constraints, so that a subset of the base analogue is selected and mapping from base to target occurs in series. Empirical evidence shows that humans are better at using and creating analogies when the information is presented in an order where an item and its analogue are placed together. Eqaan Doug and his team challenged the shared structure theory and mostly its applications in computer science. They argue that there is no clear line between
perception Perception () is the organization, identification, and interpretation of sensory information in order to represent and understand the presented information or environment. All perception involves signals that go through the nervous syste ...
, including high-level perception, and analogical thinking. In fact, analogy occurs not only after, but also before and at the same time as high-level perception. In high-level perception, humans make Knowledge representation, representations by selecting relevant information from low-level stimulus (physiology), stimuli. Perception is necessary for analogy, but analogy is also necessary for high-level perception. Chalmers et al. concludes that analogy actually is high-level perception. Forbus et al. (1998) claim that this is only a metaphor. It has been argued (Morrison and Dietrich 1995) that Hofstadter's and Gentner's groups do not defend opposite views, but are instead dealing with different aspects of analogy.


Anatomy

In anatomy, two anatomical structures are considered to be ''analogous'' when they serve similar role, functions but are not evolutionarily related, such as the Leg (anatomy), legs of vertebrates and the legs of insects. Analogous structures are the result of convergent evolution, independent evolution and should be contrasted with structures which Homology (biology), shared an evolutionary line.


Engineering

Often a physical prototype is built to model and represent some other physical object. For example, wind tunnels are used to test scale models of wings and aircraft which are analogous to (correspond to) full-size wings and aircraft. For example, the Phillips Machine, MONIAC (an analog computer, analogue computer) used the flow of water in its pipes as an analogue to the flow of money in an economy.


Cybernetics

Where two or more biological or physical participants meet, they communicate and the stresses produced describe internal models of the participants. Gordon Pask, Pask in his conversation theory asserts an Conversation theory#Analogy, analogy that describes both similarities and differences between any pair of the participants' internal models or concepts exists.


History

In historical science, comparative historical analysis often uses the concept of analogy and analogical reasoning. Recent methods involving calculation operate on large document archives, allowing for analogical or corresponding terms from the past to be found as a response to random questions by users (e.g., Myanmar - Burma) and explained.


Morality

Analogical reasoning plays a very important part in morality. This may be because morality is supposed to be impartiality, impartial and fair. If it is wrong to do something in a situation A, and situation B corresponds to A in all related features, then it is also wrong to perform that action in situation B. Moral particularism accepts such reasoning, instead of deduction and induction, since only the first can be used regardless of any moral principles.


Psychology


Structure mapping theory

Structure mapping, originally proposed by Dedre Gentner, is a theory in psychology that describes the psychological processes involved in reasoning through, and learning from, analogies. More specifically, this theory aims to describe how familiar knowledge, or knowledge about a base domain, can be used to inform an individual's understanding of a less familiar idea, or a target domain. According to this theory, individuals view their knowledge of ideas, or domains, as interconnected structures. In other words, a domain is viewed as consisting of objects, their properties, and the relationships that characterise their interactions. The process of analogy then involves: # Recognising similar structures between the base and target domains. # Finding deeper similarities by mapping other relationships of a base domain to the target domain. # Cross-checking those findings against existing knowledge of the target domain. In general, it has been found that people prefer analogies where the two systems correspond highly to each other (e.g. have similar relationships across the domains as opposed to just having similar objects across domains) when these people try to compare and contrast the systems. This is also known as the systematicity principle. An example that has been used to illustrate structure mapping theory comes from Gentner and Gentner (1983) and uses the base domain of flowing water and the target domain of electricity. In a system of flowing water, the water is carried through pipes and the rate of water flow is determined by the pressure of the water towers or hills. This relationship Hydraulic analogy, corresponds to that of electricity flowing through a circuit. In a circuit, the electricity is carried through wires and the current, or rate of flow of electricity, is determined by the voltage, or electrical pressure. Given the similarity in structure, or structural alignment, between these domains, structure mapping theory would predict that relationships from one of these domains, would be inferred in the other using analogy.


= Children

= Children do not always need prompting to make comparisons in order to learn abstract relationships. Eventually, children undergo a relational shift, after which they begin seeing similar relations across different situations instead of merely looking at matching objects. This is critical in their cognitive development as continuing to focus on specific objects would reduce children's ability to learn abstract patterns and reason analogically. Interestingly, some researchers have proposed that children's basic brain functions (i.e., working memory and inhibitory control) do not drive this relational shift. Instead, it is driven by their relational knowledge, such as having labels for the objects that make the relationships clearer(see previous section). However, there is not enough evidence to determine whether the relational shift is actually because basic brain functions become better or relational knowledge becomes deeper. Additionally, research has identified several factors that may increase the likelihood that a child may spontaneously engage in comparison and learn an abstract relationship, without the need for prompts. Comparison is more likely when the objects to be compared are close together in space and/or time, are highly similar (although not so similar that they match, which interfere with identifying relationships), or share common labels.


Law

In
law Law is a set of rules that are created and are enforceable by social or governmental institutions to regulate behavior, with its precise definition a matter of longstanding debate. It has been variously described as a science and as the ar ...
, analogy is a method of resolving issues on which there is no previous authority. The legal use of analogy is distinguished by the need to use a legally relevant basis for drawing an analogy between two situations. It may be applied to various forms of Sources of law, legal authority, including statutory law and case law. In the civil law (legal system), civil law tradition, analogy is most typically used for filling gaps in a statutory scheme. In the common law (legal system), common law tradition, it is most typically used for extending the scope of precedent. The use of analogy in both traditions is broadly described by the traditional maxim (where the reason is the same, the law is the same).


Teaching strategies

Analogies as defined in rhetoric are a comparison between words, but an analogy more generally can also be used to illustrate and teach. To enlighten pupils on the relations between or within certain concepts, items or phenomena, a teacher may refer to other concepts, items or phenomena that pupils are more familiar with. It may help to create or clarify one theory (or theoretical model) via the workings of another theory (or theoretical model). Thus an analogy, as used in teaching, would be comparing a topic that students are already familiar with, with a new topic that is being introduced, so that students can get a better understanding of the new topic by relating back to existing knowledge. This can be particularly helpful when the analogy serves across different disciplines: indeed, there are various teaching innovations now emerging that use sight-based analogies for teaching and research across subjects such as science and the humanities.


Religion


Catholicism

The Fourth Lateran Council of 1215 taught: ''For between creator and creature there can be noted no similarity so great that a greater dissimilarity cannot be seen between them.'' The theological exploration of this subject is called the ''analogia entis''. The consequence of this theory is that all true statements concerning God (excluding the concrete details of Jesus' earthly life) are rough analogies, without implying any falsehood. Such analogical and true statements would include ''God is'', ''God is Love'', ''God is a consuming fire'', ''God is near to all who call him'', or God as Trinity, where ''being'', ''love'', ''fire'', ''distance'', ''number'' must be classed as analogies that allow human cognition of what is infinitely beyond positive or Via negativa, negative language. The use of theological statements in syllogisms must take into account their analogical essence, in that every analogy breaks down when stretched beyond its intended meaning.


Doctrine of the Trinity

In traditional Christian doctrine, the Trinity is a Mystery of faith#Theological term, Mystery of Faith that has been revealed, not something obvious or derivable from first principles or found in any thing in the created world. Because of this, the use of analogies to understand the Trinity is common and perhaps necessary. The Trinity is a combination of the words “tri,” meaning “three,” and “unity,” meaning “one.” The “Threeness” refers to the persons of the Trinity, while the “Oneness” refers to substance or being. Medieval Cistercian monk Bernard of Clairveaux used the analogy of a kiss: Many analogies have been used to explain the Trinity, however, all analogies fail when taken too far. Examples of these are the analogies that state that the Trinity is like water and its different states (solid, liquid, gas) or like an egg with its different parts (shell, yolk, and egg white). However, these analogies, if taken too far, could teach the heresies of modalism (water states) and partialism (parts of egg), which are contrary to the Christian understanding of the Trinity. Other analogies exist. The analogy of notes of a chord, say C major, is a sufficient analogy for the Trinity. The notes C, E, and G individually fill the whole of the “heard” space, but when all notes come together, we have a homogenized sound within the same space with distinctive, equal notes. One more analogy used is one that uses the mythological dog, Cerberus, that guards the gates of Hades. While the dog itself is a single organism—speaking to its substance—Cerberus has different centers of awareness due to its three heads, each of which has the same dog nature.


Protestantism

In some Protestant theology, "analogy" may itself be used analogously in terms, more in a sense of "rule" or "exemplar": for example the concept "analogia fidei" has been proposed as an alternative to the concept ''Analogia entis#Protestant treatments, analogia entis'' but named analogously.


Islam

Islamic jurisprudence makes ample use of analogy as a means of making conclusions from outside sources of law. The bounds and rules employed to make analogical deduction vary greatly between madhhabs and to a lesser extent individual scholars. It is nonetheless a generally accepted source of law within Usul Al-Fiqh, jurisprudential epistemology, with the chief opposition to it forming the Zahiri, dhahiri (ostensiblist) school.


See also

* Argumentum a contrario * Argumentum a fortiori * Case-based reasoning * Casuistry * Commonsense reasoning * Conceptual blending * Duck test * False analogy * Hypocatastasis * I know it when I see it * Intuitive statistics * Metaphor * Parable * Sensemaking


Notes


References

* Cajetan, Tommaso De Vio, (1498), ''De Nominum Analogia'', P.N. Zammit (ed.), 1934, ''The Analogy of Names'', Koren, Henry J. and Bushinski, Edward A (trans.), 1953, Pittsburgh: Duquesne University Press. * Chalmers, D.J. et al. (1991). Chalmers, D.J., French, R.M., Hofstadter, D.
High-Level Perception, Representation, and Analogy
* Coelho, Ivo (2010). "Analogy." ACPI Encyclopedia of Philosophy. Ed. Johnson J. Puthenpurackal. Bangalore: ATC. 1:64-68. * Doumas, L. A. A., Hummel, J.E., and Sandhofer, C. (2008)
A Theory of the Discovery and Predication of Relational Concepts.
Psychological Review, 115, 1-43. * * Forbus, K. et al. (1998)
Analogy just looks like high-level perception
* Gentner, D. (1983)
Structure-mapping: A theoretical framework for analogy.
Cognitive Science, 7, 155–170. (Reprinted in A. Collins & E. E. Smith (Eds.), Readings in cognitive science: A perspective from psychology and artificial intelligence. Palo Alto, CA: Kaufmann). * Gentner, D., Holyoak, K.J., Kokinov, B. (Eds.) (2001)
The Analogical Mind: Perspectives from Cognitive Science.
Cambridge, MA, MIT Press, * Hofstadter, D. (2001)

in Dedre Gentner, Keith Holyoak, and Boicho Kokinov (eds.) The Analogical Mind: Perspectives from Cognitive Science, Cambridge, MA: The MIT Press, 2001, pp. 499–538. * Holland, J.H., Holyoak, K.J., Nisbett, R.E., and Thagard, P. (1986)
Induction: Processes of Inference, Learning, and Discovery
Cambridge, MA, MIT Press, . * Holyoak, K.J., and Thagard, P. (1995)
Mental Leaps: Analogy in Creative Thought
Cambridge, MA, MIT Press, . * Holyoak, K.J., and Thagard, P. (1997)

* Hummel, J.E., and Holyoak, K.J. (2005)
Relational Reasoning in a Neurally Plausible Cognitive Architecture
* Itkonen, E. (2005). Analogy as Structure and Process. Amsterdam/Philadelphia: John Benjamins Publishing Company. * Juthe, A. (2005)
"Argument by Analogy"
in Argumentation (2005) 19: 1–27. * * * Lamond, G. (2006)
Precedent and Analogy in Legal Reasoning
in Stanford Encyclopedia of Philosophy. * Langacker, Ronald W. (1987). Foundations of Cognitive grammar. Vol. I, Theoretical prerequisites. Stanford: Stanford University Press. * * * Melandri, Enzo. La linea e il circolo. Studio logico-filosofico sull'analogia (1968), Quodlibet, Macerata 2004 prefazione di Giorgio Agamben. * Morrison, C., and Dietrich, E. (1995)
Structure-Mapping vs. High-level Perception
* Pessali, H.; Dalto, F. and Fernández, R. (2015).
Analogies we suffer by: the case of the state as a household
''. In: Tae-Hee Jo; Zdravka Todorova (Org.). ''Advancing the Frontiers of Heterodox Economics: Essays in Honor of Frederic S. Lee''. Nova Iorque: Routledge, p. 281-295. * Perelman, Ch, Olbrechts-Tyteca, L. (1969), The New Rhetoric: A Treatise on Argumentation, Notre Dame 1969. * Ross, J.F., (1982), ''Portraying Analogy''. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press. * * * Ross, J.F., (1958), ''A Critical Analysis of the Theory of Analogy of St Thomas Aquinas'', (Ann Arbor, MI: University Microfilms Inc). * Shelley, C. (2003). Multiple analogies in Science and Philosophy. Amsterdam/Philadelphia: John Benjamins Publishing Company. * *


External links

{{Wikiquote
''Stanford Encyclopedia of Philosophy''
"Analogy and Analogical Reasoning", by Paul Bartha.
''Stanford Encyclopedia of Philosophy''
"Medieval Theories of Analogy", by E. Jennifer Ashworth.
''Stanford Encyclopedia of Philosophy''
"Precedent and Analogy in Legal Reasoning", by Grant Lamond. *
Dictionary of the History of Ideas
' Analogy in Early Greek Thought. *
Dictionary of the History of Ideas
' Analogy in Patristic and Medieval Thought. *
Computational approaches to computing temporal analogy
'. Analogy, Conceptual modelling Philosophical arguments Semantics