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Analogy (from Greek ''analogia'', "proportion", from ''ana-'' "upon, according to" lso "against", "anew"+ ''logos'' "ratio" lso "word, speech, reckoning" is a
cognitive Cognition refers to "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, though ...
process of transferring information or meaning from a particular subject (the analog, or source) to another (the target), or a linguistic expression corresponding to such a process. In a narrower sense, analogy is an inference or an
argument An argument is a statement or group of statements called premises intended to determine the degree of truth or acceptability of another statement called conclusion. Arguments can be studied from three main perspectives: the logical, the dialectic ...
from one particular to another particular, as opposed to deduction, induction, and
abduction Abduction may refer to: Media Film and television * "Abduction" (''The Outer Limits''), a 2001 television episode * " Abduction" (''Death Note'') a Japanese animation television series * " Abductions" (''Totally Spies!''), a 2002 episode of an ...
, in which at least one of the
premise A premise or premiss is a true or false statement that helps form the body of an argument, which logically leads to a true or false conclusion. A premise makes a declarative statement about its subject matter which enables a reader to either agre ...
s, or the conclusion, is general rather than particular in nature. 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
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 Argumentation theory, or argumentation, is the interdisciplinary study of how conclusions can be supported or undermined by premises through logical reasoning. With historical origins in logic, dialectic, and rhetoric, argumentation theory, includ ...
,
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 system ...
, generalization, memory,
creativity Creativity is a phenomenon whereby something new and valuable is formed. The created item may be intangible (such as an idea, a scientific theory, a musical composition, or a joke) or a physical object (such as an invention, a printed literary ...
,
invention An invention is a unique or novel device, method, composition, idea or process. An invention may be an improvement upon a machine, product, or process for increasing efficiency or lowering cost. It may also be an entirely new concept. If an i ...
, prediction, emotion, explanation,
conceptualization In information science a conceptualization is an abstract simplified view of some selected part of the world, containing the objects, concepts, and other entities that are presumed of interest for some particular purpose and the relationships betw ...
and communication. 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 spec ...
and
facial recognition system A facial recognition system is a technology capable of matching a human face from a digital image or a video frame against a database of faces. Such a system is typically employed to authenticate users through ID verification services, and ...
s. It has been argued that analogy is "the core of cognition". Specific analogical language comprises 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 often compared wit ...
s,
simile A simile () is a figure of speech that directly ''compares'' two things. Similes differ from other metaphors by highlighting the similarities between two things using comparison words such as "like", "as", "so", or "than", while other metaphors c ...
s,
allegories As a Literature, literary device or art, artistic form, an allegory is a narrative or visual representation in which a character, place, or event can be interpreted to represent a hidden meaning with moral or political significance. Authors have ...
, and parables, but ''not'' metonymy. 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, and quotative. Uses Comparisons ' ...
'' also rely on an analogical understanding by the receiver of a message 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 a 47-page pamphlet written by Thomas Paine in 1775–1776 advocating independence from Great Britain to people in the Thirteen Colonies. Writing in clear and persuasive prose, Paine collected various moral and political argu ...
(where proverbs and idioms give many examples of its application) but also in science, philosophy,
law Law is a set of rules that are created and are enforceable by social or governmental institutions to regulate behavior,Robertson, ''Crimes against humanity'', 90. with its precise definition a matter of longstanding debate. It has been vari ...
and the humanities. The concepts of
association Association may refer to: *Club (organization), an association of two or more people united by a common interest or goal * Trade association, an organization founded and funded by businesses that operate in a specific industry *Voluntary associati ...
, comparison, correspondence, mathematical and morphological homology, homomorphism, iconicity, isomorphism, 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 co ...
, the notion of
conceptual metaphor In cognitive linguistics, conceptual metaphor, or cognitive metaphor, refers to the understanding of one idea, or conceptual domain, in terms of another. An example of this is the understanding of quantity in terms of directionality (e.g. "the pr ...
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 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,Robertson, ''Crimes against humanity'', 90. with its precise definition a matter of longstanding debate. It has been vari ...
yers. The last few decades have shown a renewed interest in analogy, most notably in cognitive science.


Usage of the terms "source" and "target"

With respect to the terms ''source'' and ''target'' there are two distinct traditions of usage: * The logical and cultures and economics tradition speaks of an ''arrow'', '' homomorphism'', '' mapping'', or ''
morphism In mathematics, particularly in category theory, a morphism is a structure-preserving map from one mathematical structure to another one of the same type. The notion of morphism recurs in much of contemporary mathematics. In set theory, morphisms ...
'' from what is typically the more complex ''domain'' or ''source'' to what is typically the less complex ''
codomain In mathematics, the codomain or set of destination of a function is the set into which all of the output of the function is constrained to fall. It is the set in the notation . The term range is sometimes ambiguously used to refer to either ...
'' or ''target'', using all of these words in the sense of mathematical
category theory Category theory is a general theory of mathematical structures and their relations that was introduced by Samuel Eilenberg and Saunders Mac Lane in the middle of the 20th century in their foundational work on algebraic topology. Nowadays, cate ...
. * The tradition in cognitive psychology, in literary theory, and in specializations within philosophy outside of logic, speaks of a mapping from what is typically the more familiar area of experience, the ''source'', to what is typically the more problematic area of experience, the ''target''.


Models and theories


Identity of relation

In ancient Greek the word ''αναλογια'' (''analogia'') originally meant proportionality, in the mathematical sense, and it was indeed sometimes translated to Latin as ''proportio''. From there analogy was understood as identity of relation between any two ordered pairs, whether of mathematical nature or not. Kant's ''
Critique of Judgment The ''Critique of Judgment'' (german: Kritik der Urteilskraft), also translated as the ''Critique of the Power of Judgment'', is a 1790 book by the German philosopher Immanuel Kant. Sometimes referred to as the "third critique," the ''Critique o ...
'' held to this notion. Kant argued that there can be exactly the same relation between two completely different objects. The same notion of analogy was used in the US-based
SAT The SAT ( ) is a standardized test widely used for college admissions in the United States. Since its debut in 1926, its name and scoring have changed several times; originally called the Scholastic Aptitude Test, it was later called the Schol ...
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 Aristotelian format: HAND : PALM : : FOOT : ____ While most competent
English English usually refers to: * English language * English people English may also refer to: Peoples, culture, and language * ''English'', an adjective for something of, from, or related to England ** English national ...
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 definition The lexical definition of a term, also known as the dictionary definition, is the definition closely matching the meaning of the term in common usage. As its other name implies, this is the sort of definition one is likely to find in the dictiona ...
s 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''. Analogy and
abstraction Abstraction in its main sense is a conceptual process wherein general rules and concepts are derived from the usage and classification of specific examples, literal ("real" or "concrete") signifiers, first principles, or other methods. "An abst ...
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. A computer algorithm has achieved human-level performance on multiple-choice analogy questions from the
SAT The SAT ( ) is a standardized test widely used for college admissions in the United States. Since its debut in 1926, its name and scoring have changed several times; originally called the Scholastic Aptitude Test, it was later called the Schol ...
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 statistical analysis of a large collection of text. It answers SAT questions by selecting the choice with the highest relational similarity.


Shared abstraction

Greek philosophers such as Plato and Aristotle 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
argument An argument is a statement or group of statements called premises intended to determine the degree of truth or acceptability of another statement called conclusion. Arguments can be studied from three main perspectives: the logical, the dialectic ...
s, and sometimes they called them ''analogies''. Analogies should also make those abstractions easier to understand and give confidence to the ones using them. The Middle Ages saw an increased use and theorization of analogy.
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 ancient Rome *''Epistle to the Romans'', shortened to ''Romans'', a lett ...
lawyers had already used analogical reasoning and the Greek word ''analogia''. Medieval lawyers distinguished '' analogia legis'' and '' analogia iuris'' (see below). In
Islamic logic Early Islamic law placed importance on formulating standards of argument, which gave rise to a "novel approach to logic" ( ''manṭiq'' "speech, eloquence") in Kalam (Islamic scholasticism). However, with the rise of the Mu'tazili philosophers, wh ...
, analogical reasoning was used for the process of qiyas in Islamic sharia law and fiqh jurisprudence. In Christian theology, analogical arguments were accepted in order to explain the attributes of
God In monotheistic thought, God is usually viewed as the supreme being, creator, and principal object of faith. Swinburne, R.G. "God" in Honderich, Ted. (ed)''The Oxford Companion to Philosophy'', Oxford University Press, 1995. God is typically ...
.
Aquinas Thomas Aquinas, OP (; it, Tommaso d'Aquino, lit=Thomas of Aquino; 1225 – 7 March 1274) was an Italian Dominican friar and priest who was an influential philosopher, theologian and jurist in the tradition of scholasticism; he is known w ...
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 In linguistics, homonyms are words which are homographs (words that share the same spelling, regardless of pronunciation), or homophones (equivocal words, that share the same pronunciation, regardless of spelling), or both. Using this definition, ...
).
Thomas Cajetan Thomas Cajetan (; 20 February 14699 August 1534), also known as Gaetanus, commonly Tommaso de Vio or Thomas de Vio, was an Italian philosopher, theologian, cardinal (from 1517 until his death) and the Master of the Order of Preachers 1508 to 151 ...
wrote an influential treatise on analogy. In all of these cases, the wide Platonic and Aristotelian notion of analogy was preserved.
James Francis Ross James Francis Ross (October 9, 1931 – July 12, 2010) was an American philosopher. James Ross, a creative thinker in philosophy of religion, law, metaphysics and philosophy of mind, was a member of the Philosophy Department at the University of ...
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

On the contrary,
Ibn Taymiyya Ibn Taymiyyah (January 22, 1263 – September 26, 1328; ar, ابن تيمية), birth name Taqī ad-Dīn ʾAḥmad ibn ʿAbd al-Ḥalīm ibn ʿAbd al-Salām al-Numayrī al-Ḥarrānī ( ar, تقي الدين أحمد بن عبد الحليم � ...
,, pp. 16–36 Francis Bacon and later John Stuart Mill argued that analogy is simply a special case of induction. In their view analogy is an inductive inference from common known attributes to another
probable Probability is the branch of mathematics concerning numerical descriptions of how likely an event is to occur, or how likely it is that a proposition is true. The probability of an event is a number between 0 and 1, where, roughly speakin ...
common attribute, which is known only about 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. This view does not accept analogy as an autonomous mode of thought or inference, reducing it to induction. However, autonomous analogical arguments are still useful in science, philosophy and the humanities (see below), which makes this reduction philosophically uninteresting. Moreover, induction tries to achieve general conclusions, while analogy looks for particular ones.


Shared structure

Contemporary cognitive scientists use a wide notion of analogy, extensionally close to that of Plato and Aristotle, but framed by Gentner's (1983) structure mapping theory. The same idea of mapping between source and target is used by
conceptual metaphor In cognitive linguistics, conceptual metaphor, or cognitive metaphor, refers to the understanding of one idea, or conceptual domain, in terms of another. An example of this is the understanding of quantity in terms of directionality (e.g. "the pr ...
and
conceptual blending In cognitive linguistics, conceptual blending, also called conceptual integration or view application, is a theory of cognition developed by Gilles Fauconnier and Mark Turner. According to this theory, elements and vital relations from diverse scen ...
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 often compared wit ...
and similarity.
Keith Holyoak Keith James Holyoak (born January 16, 1950) is a Canadian-American researcher in cognitive psychology and cognitive science, working on human thinking and reasoning. Holyoak's work focuses on the role of analogy in thinking. His work showed ho ...
and
Paul Thagard Paul Richard Thagard (; born 1950) is a Canadian philosopher who specializes in cognitive science, philosophy of mind, and the philosophy of science and medicine. Thagard is a professor emeritus of philosophy at the University of Waterloo. He i ...
(1997) developed their multiconstraint theory within structure mapping theory. They defend that the " coherence" of an analogy depends on structural consistency,
semantic similarity Semantic similarity is a metric defined over a set of documents or terms, where the idea of distance between items is based on the likeness of their meaning or semantic content as opposed to lexicographical similarity. These are mathematical tools ...
and purpose. Structural consistency is maximal when the analogy is an isomorphism, although lower levels are admitted. Similarity demands that the mapping connects similar elements and relations of source and target, at any level of abstraction. It is maximal when there are identical relations and when connected elements have many identical attributes. An analogy achieves its purpose insofar as 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 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 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 analog is selected and mapping from base to target occurs in a serial manner. Empirical evidence shows that human analogical mapping performance is influenced by information presentation order. Eqaan Doug and his team challenged the shared structure theory and mostly its applications in computer science. They argue that there is no 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 system ...
, including high-level perception, and analogical thought. 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 representations by selecting relevant information from low-level
stimuli A stimulus is something that causes a physiological response. It may refer to: *Stimulation **Stimulus (physiology), something external that influences an activity **Stimulus (psychology), a concept in behaviorism and perception *Stimulus (economi ...
. Perception is necessary for analogy, but analogy is also necessary for high-level perception. Chalmers et al. conclude 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.


Analogy and complexity

Antoine Cornuéjols has presented analogy as a ''principle of economy'' and ''computational complexity''. Reasoning by analogy is a process of, from a given pair (''x'',''f''(''x'')), extrapolating the function ''f''. In the standard modeling, analogical reasoning involves two "objects": the ''source'' and the ''target''. The target is supposed to be incomplete and in need for a complete description using the source. The target has an existing part ''S''''t'' and a missing part ''R''''t''. We assume that we can isolate a situation of the source ''S''''s'', which corresponds to a situation of target ''S''''t'', and the result of the source ''R''''s'', which correspond to the result of the target ''R''''t''. With ''B''''s'', the relation between ''S''''s'' and ''R''''s'', we want ''B''''t'', the relation between ''S''''t'' and ''R''''t''. ''If the source and target are completely known:'' Using Kolmogorov complexity ''K''(''x''), defined as the size of the smallest description of ''x'' and
Solomonoff Ray Solomonoff (July 25, 1926 – December 7, 2009) was the inventor of algorithmic probability, his General Theory of Inductive Inference (also known as Universal Inductive Inference),Samuel Rathmanner and Marcus Hutter. A philosophical treatise ...
's approach to induction, Rissanen (89), Wallace & Boulton (68) proposed the principle of
minimum description length Minimum Description Length (MDL) is a model selection principle where the shortest description of the data is the best model. MDL methods learn through a data compression perspective and are sometimes described as mathematical applications of Occam ...
. This principle leads to minimize the complexity ''K''(''target'' , ''Source'') of producing the target, given the source. This is unattractive in Artificial Intelligence, as it requires a computation over abstract Turing machines. Suppose that ''M''''s'' and ''M''''t'' are local theories of the source and the target, available to the observer. The best analogy between a source case and a target case is the analogy that minimizes: :''K''(''M''''s'') + ''K''(''S''''s'', ''M''''s'') + ''K''(''B''''s'', ''M''''s'') + ''K''(''M''''t'', ''M''''s'') + ''K''(''S''''t'', ''M''''t'') + ''K''(''B''''t'', ''M''''t'')       (1). ''If the target is completely unknown:'' All models and descriptions ''M''''s'', ''M''''t'', ''B''''s'', ''S''''s'', and ''S''''t'' leading to the minimization of: :''K''(''M''''s'') + ''K''(''S''''s'', ''M''''s'') + ''K''(''B''''s'', ''M''''s'') + ''K''(''M''''t'', ''M''''s'') + ''K''(''S''''t'', ''M''''t'')       (2) are also those who allow to obtain the relationship ''B''''t'', and thus the most satisfactory ''R''''t'' for expression (1). The analogical hypothesis, which solves an analogy between a source case and a target case, has two parts: * Analogy, like induction, is a ''principle of economy''. The best analogy between two cases is the one which minimizes the amount of information necessary for the derivation of the source from the target (1). Its most fundamental measure is the computational complexity theory. * When solving or completing a target case with a source case, the parameters which minimize (2) are postulated to minimize (1), and thus, produce the best response. However, a ''cognitive agent'' may simply reduce the amount of information necessary for the interpretation of the source and the target, without taking into account the cost of data replication. So, it may prefer to the minimization of (2) the minimization of the following simplified expression: :''K''(''M''''s'') + ''K''(''B''''s'', ''M''''s'') + ''K''(''M''''t'', ''M''''s'')


Psychology of analogy


Structure mapping theory

Structure mapping, originally proposed by
Dedre Gentner Dedre Dariel Gentner (born 1944) is an American cognitive and developmental psychologist. She is the Alice Gabriel Twight Professor of Psychology at Northwestern University. She is a leading researcher in the study of analogical reasoning. Wor ...
, 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 domains as interconnected structures. In other words, a domain is viewed as consisting of objects, the object's properties, and the relationships that characterize how objects and their properties interact. The process of analogy then involves recognizing similar structures between the two domains, inferring further similarity in structure by mapping additional relationships of a base domain to the target domain, and then checking those inferences against existing knowledge of the target domain. In general, it has been found that people prefer analogies where the two systems have a deep degree of correspondence (e.g. relationships across the domains correspond as opposed to just the objects across domains corresponding) when attempting to draw inferences between 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 domains of flowing water and 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 system. This relationship is analogous to that of electricity flowing through an electrical 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 via analogy.


Structural alignment

Structural alignment is one process involved in the larger structure mapping theory. When establishing structural alignment between two domains that are being compared, an individual is attempting to identify as many commonalities between the systems as possible while maintaining a one-to-one correspondence between elements (i.e., objects, properties, and relationships). In the flowing water and electricity analogy, a one-to-one correspondence is illustrated by water pipes mapping on to wires but not corresponding with any other elements in the circuit. Furthemore, structural alignment is also characterized by parallel connectivity, or the idea that if a one-to-one correspondence is generated between relationships across two systems (e.g., the rate of water flow through a pipe increases with pressure similarly to how the current in an electrical circuit increases with voltage), then the relevant objects and properties must also correspond (e.g. the rate of flow of water corresponds to electrical current and water pressure corresponds to voltage).


Analogical inference

Analogical inference is a second process involved in the theory of structure mapping and happens after structural alignment has been established between two domains being compared. During this process an individual draws inferences about the target domain by projecting information from the base domain to said target domain. The following example can be used to illustrate this process, where ''1'' represents information about a base domain, ''2'' represents correspondences between the base and target domain, and ''3'' represents an inference about the target domain: # In plumbing systems, narrow pipes lead to a decrease in rate of flow of water # Narrow pipes correspond to resistors in an electrical circuit and water corresponds to electricity. # In an electrical circuit, resistors lead to a decrease in the rate of flow of electricity


Evaluation

Evaluation is a third process involved in the theory of structure mapping and happens after structures have been aligned and inferences about the target domain have been proposed. During evaluation, an individual is judging whether the analogy is relevant and plausible. This process has been described as solving the selection problem in analogy, or explaining how individuals choose which inferences to map from the base to target domain as analogies would be fruitless if all possible inferences were made. When evaluating an analogy, individuals typically judge it on several factors: * Factual Correctness. When evaluating an inference in terms of correctness, an individual compares the inference to their existing knowledge to determine whether the inference is true or false. In the case once cannot determine the correctness, then the one may consider the adaptability of the inference, or how easily the knowledge is modified when translating it from the base to target domain. * Goal Relevance. When evaluating an analogy, it is important that the inferences provide insight that is relevant to the situation at hand. For example, when attempting to solve a problem, does the inference provide insight that moves one towards a solution or generate new, potentially helpful knowledge?


Factors related to analogical reasoning


Language

Language can support analogical reasoning when relational labels are provided to compensate for low transparency. For example, children struggle when they are asked to identify the relational structure between sets of boxes (e.g., Set 1: a small, medium, and large box. Set 2: a medium, large, and extra large box). Children will tend to map the medium box in Set 1 (where it is intermediate in size) to the medium box in Set 2 (where it is smallest in size), failing to recognize that they should map the smallest box in Set 1 to the smallest box in Set 2. Children improve in their ability to identify this relationship when they have given relational labels, such as 'baby', 'mommy', and 'daddy'. It is also important to note that, while language may support analogical reasoning, it may not be necessary. Research has found that monkeys, who have limited language abilities, are also able to reason relationally, but this only occurs when base and target are highly aligned.


Transparency

Analogical reasoning is impacted by how similar the objects being mapped to each other are. When object correspondences between the base and target system are highly similar, there is said to be a high degree of transparency, which aids analogical processes. High transparency is helpful when using analogy to support problem-solving. For example, if a student is asked to calculate how many golf balls each golfer will need at a tournament, they will then be able to apply this solution to future problems when the objects are highly similar (e.g. reasoning about how many tennis balls each player will need).


Processing capacities

In order to engage in analogical processes, an individual needs time to work through the processes of alignment, inference, and evaluation. If not given adequate time to engage in analogical reasoning, then one is more likely to fixate on lower level object correspondences between the two systems, as opposed identifying potentially more informative higher-order relationships that are analogous. Similar effects also occur if one's working memory is under a high cognitive load at the time (e.g., the person is trying to reason through an analogy while also keeping a word in the mind).


The development of analogical ability

Research has also found that children are capable of using comparisons in order to learn abstract patterns, but this sometimes requires prompting from another. To provide support for this claim, researchers taught 3- and 4-year-olds a simple relationship by showing them a series of pictures. Each picture had 3 of the same animal and was labeled as a “toma” for the child. Some of these children were prompted to compare the different ‘tomas’ while others were not. After seeing the pictures and some having been prompted to compare, the children were tested on whether or not they had learned the abstract pattern (i.e., a ‘toma’ is a triad of matching animals). Children were shown two images and asked “Which is the ‘toma’?”. The first was a relational match and displayed a triad of matching animals they had not seen before, while the second image was an object match and displayed a triad of non-matching animals that the child had seen while learning about the relationship. The children who had been prompted to compare the tomas while learning were more likely to have learned the pattern and choose the relational match when being tested. 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 to focus more on identifying similar relational structures across different contexts and less on simply identifying matching objects. This shift is critical in cognitive development as continuing to focus attention on specific objects would hinder children's ability to learn abstract patterns and engage in analogical reasoning. Interestingly, some researchers have proposed that the relational shift does not seem to be driven by maturation in children's underlying cognitive abilities (i.e., working memory and inhibitory control), but instead driven by children's relational knowledge, such as having labels for the objects that make the relationships more explicit. Although, there is not ample evidence to  determine whether the relational shift is actually driven by maturation in cognitive abilities or increases in relational knowledge. 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 promoting. Comparison is more likely when the objects to be compared have spatiotemporal proximity, are highly similar (although not so similar that they are matching objects, which interfere with identifying relationships), or share common labels.


Applications and types


Logic

Logicians analyze how analogical reasoning is used in 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 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

* An analogy can be the linguistic process that reduces word forms perceived as irregular by remaking them in the shape of more common forms that are governed by rules. For example, the
English English usually refers to: * English language * English people English may also refer to: Peoples, culture, and language * ''English'', an adjective for something of, from, or related to England ** English national ...
verb ''
help Help is a word meaning to give aid or signal distress. Help may refer to: Arts, entertainment, and media Films * ''Help'' (2010 film), a Bollywood horror film * ''Help'' (2021 theatrical film), a British psychological thriller film * '' ...
'' once had the preterite ''holp'' and the past participle ''holpen''. These
obsolete Obsolescence is the state of being which occurs when an object, service, or practice is no longer maintained or required even though it may still be in good working order. It usually happens when something that is more efficient or less risky r ...
forms have been discarded and replaced by ''helped'' by the power of analogy (or by widened application of the
productive Productivity is the efficiency of production of goods or services expressed by some measure. Measurements of productivity are often expressed as a ratio of an aggregate output to a single input or an aggregate input used in a production proces ...
Verb-''ed'' rule.) This is called '' leveling.'' However, irregular forms can sometimes be created by analogy; one example is the
American English American English, sometimes called United States English or U.S. English, is the set of varieties of the English language native to the United States. English is the most widely spoken language in the United States and in most circumstances ...
past tense form of ''
dive Diving most often refers to: * Diving (sport), the sport of jumping into deep water * Underwater diving, human activity underwater for recreational or occupational purposes Diving or Dive may also refer to: Sports * Dive (American football), a ...
'': ''dove'', formed on analogy with words such as ''drive'': ''drove''. *
Neologisms A neologism Ancient_Greek.html"_;"title="_from_Ancient_Greek">Greek_νέο-_''néo''(="new")_and_λόγος_/''lógos''_meaning_"speech,_utterance"is_a_relatively_recent_or_isolated_term,_word,_or_phrase_that_may_be_in_the_process_of_entering_com ...
can also be formed by analogy with existing words. A good example is '' software'', formed by analogy with '' hardware''; other analogous neologisms such as '' firmware'' and '' vaporware'' have followed. Another example is the humorous term ''underwhelm'', formed by analogy with ''overwhelm''. * Analogy is often presented as an alternative mechanism to generative ''rules'' for explaining
productive Productivity is the efficiency of production of goods or services expressed by some measure. Measurements of productivity are often expressed as a ratio of an aggregate output to a single input or an aggregate input used in a production proces ...
formation of structures such as words. Others argue that in fact they are the same mechanism, that rules are analogies that have become entrenched as 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 has obvious resonances with the current views of analogy in cognitive science which are discussed above. Analogy is also a term used in the
Neogrammarian The Neogrammarians (German: ''Junggrammatiker'', 'young grammarians') were a German school of linguists, originally at the University of Leipzig, in the late 19th century who proposed the Neogrammarian hypothesis of the regularity of sound chang ...
school of thought as a catch-all to describe any morphological change in a language that cannot be explained by sound change or borrowing.


In science

* Analogies are above all used as a means of conceiving new ideas and hypotheses, which is called a heuristic function of analogical reasoning. * Analogical arguments can play also probative function, serving then as a means of proving the rightness of particular theses and theories. This application of analogical reasoning in science is, however, debatable. Probative value of analogy is of importance especially to those kinds of science in which logical or empirical proof is not possible such as theology, philosophy or cosmology in part where it relates to those areas of the cosmos (the universe) that are beyond any empirical observation and knowledge about them stems from the human insight and extrasensory cognition. * Analogy may be used in order to illustrate and teach (in order to enlighten pupils on the relations that happens between or inside certain things or phenomena, a teacher may refer to other things or phenomena that pupils are more familiar with). * Analogy may help in creating or elucidating one theory (theoretical model) via the workings of another theory (theoretical model). Thus it can be used in theoretical and applied sciences in the form of models or simulations which can be considered as strong analogies. Other much weaker analogies assist in understanding and describing functional behaviours of similar systems. For instance, an analogy commonly used in electronics textbooks compares electrical circuits to hydraulics. Another example is the analog 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 detail, this means that given two mathematical structures of the same type, an analogy between them can be thought of as a
bijection In mathematics, a bijection, also known as a bijective function, one-to-one correspondence, or invertible function, is a function between the elements of two sets, where each element of one set is paired with exactly one element of the other ...
between them which preserves some or all of the relevant structure. For example, \mathbb^2 and \mathbb are isomorphic as vector spaces, but the
complex numbers In mathematics, a complex number is an element of a number system that extends the real numbers with a specific element denoted , called the imaginary unit and satisfying the equation i^= -1; every complex number can be expressed in the form a ...
, \mathbb , have more structure than \mathbb^2 does: \mathbb is a
field Field may refer to: Expanses of open ground * Field (agriculture), an area of land used for agricultural purposes * Airfield, an aerodrome that lacks the infrastructure of an airport * Battlefield * Lawn, an area of mowed grass * Meadow, a grass ...
as well as a vector space.
Category theory Category theory is a general theory of mathematical structures and their relations that was introduced by Samuel Eilenberg and Saunders Mac Lane in the middle of the 20th century in their foundational work on algebraic topology. Nowadays, cate ...
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 compositional structure of the two categories is preserved. This is similar to the structure mapping theory of analogy of Dedre Gentner, in that it formalizes the idea of analogy as a function which satisfies certain conditions.


Artificial intelligence

Steven Phillips and William H. Wilson use
category theory Category theory is a general theory of mathematical structures and their relations that was introduced by Samuel Eilenberg and Saunders Mac Lane in the middle of the 20th century in their foundational work on algebraic topology. Nowadays, cate ...
to mathematically demonstrate how the analogical reasoning in the human mind, that is free of the spurious inferences that plague conventional artificial intelligence models, (called ''systematicity''), could arise naturally from the use of 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 may use analogies between domains whose internal structures fit according with a natural transformation and reject those that do not. See also
case-based reasoning In artificial intelligence and philosophy, case-based reasoning (CBR), broadly construed, is the process of solving new problems based on the solutions of similar past problems. In everyday life, an auto mechanic who fixes an engine by recallin ...
.


Anatomy

In
anatomy Anatomy () is the branch of biology concerned with the study of the structure of organisms and their parts. Anatomy is a branch of natural science that deals with the structural organization of living things. It is an old science, having it ...
, two anatomical structures are considered to be ''analogous'' when they serve similar functions but are not evolutionarily related, such as the
legs A leg is a weight-bearing and locomotive anatomical structure, usually having a columnar shape. During locomotion, legs function as "extensible struts". The combination of movements at all joints can be modeled as a single, linear element c ...
of vertebrates and the legs of insects. Analogous structures are the result of convergent evolution and should be contrasted with homologous structures.


Engineering

Often a physical prototype is built to model and represent some other physical object. For example,
wind tunnels Wind tunnels are large tubes with air blowing through them which are used to replicate the interaction between air and an object flying through the air or moving along the ground. Researchers use wind tunnels to learn more about how an aircraft ...
are used to test scale models of wings and aircraft, which act as an analogy to full-size wings and aircraft. For example, the
MONIAC The MONIAC (Monetary National Income Analogue Computer), also known as the Phillips Hydraulic Computer and the Financephalograph, was created in 1949 by the New Zealand economist Bill Phillips to model the national economic processes of the Uni ...
(an
analog computer An analog computer or analogue computer is a type of computer that uses the continuous variation aspect of physical phenomena such as electrical, mechanical, or hydraulic quantities (''analog signals'') to model the problem being solved. In ...
) used the flow of water in its pipes as an analog to the flow of money in an economy.


Cybernetics

Where there is dependence and hence interaction between a pair or more of biological or physical participants communication occurs and the stresses produced describe internal models inside the participants. Pask in his
conversation theory Conversation theory is a cybernetic and dialectic framework that offers a scientific theory to explain how interactions lead to "construction of knowledge", or "knowing": wishing to preserve both the dynamic/kinetic quality, and the necessity for th ...
asserts there exists an
analogy Analogy (from Greek ''analogia'', "proportion", from ''ana-'' "upon, according to" lso "against", "anew"+ ''logos'' "ratio" lso "word, speech, reckoning" is a cognitive process of transferring information or meaning from a particular subject ( ...
exhibiting both similarities and differences between any pair of the participants' internal models or concepts.


History

In the history science comparative historical analysis is often using the concept of analogy and analogical reasoning. Recent computational approaches operating on large document archives allow for automatically finding analogical entities from the past for arbitrary user queries (e.g., Myanmar - Burma) and for their explanation.


In normative matters


Morality

Analogical reasoning plays a very important part in morality. This may be in part because morality is supposed to be impartial and fair. If it is wrong to do something in a situation A, and situation B is analogous to A in all relevant features, then it is also wrong to perform that action in situation B.
Moral particularism Moral particularism is a theory in meta-ethics that runs counter to the idea that moral actions can be determined by applying universal moral principles. It states that there is no set of moral principles that can be applied to every situation, m ...
accepts analogical moral reasoning, rejecting both deduction and induction, since only the former can do without moral principles.


Law

In
law Law is a set of rules that are created and are enforceable by social or governmental institutions to regulate behavior,Robertson, ''Crimes against humanity'', 90. with its precise definition a matter of longstanding debate. It has been vari ...
, analogy is primarily used to resolve issues on which there is no previous authority. A distinction can be made between analogical reasoning employed in statutory law and analogical reasoning present in precedential law (case law).


=''Analogies in statutory law''

= In statutory law analogy is used in order to fill the so-called lacunas or gaps or loopholes. First, a gap arises when a specific case or legal issue is not explicitly dealt with in written law. Then, one may try to identify a statutory provision which covers the cases that are similar to the case at hand and apply to this case this provision by analogy. Such a gap, in civil law countries, is referred to as a gap extra legem (outside of the law), while analogy which liquidates it is termed analogy extra legem (outside of the law). The very case at hand is named: an unprovided case. Second, a gap comes into being when there is a statutory provision which applies to the case at hand but this provision leads in this case to an unwanted outcome. Then, upon analogy to another statutory provision that covers cases similar to the case at hand, this case is resolved upon this provision instead of the provision that applies to it directly. This gap is called a gap contra legem (against the law), while analogy which fills this gap is referred to as analogy contra legem (against the law). Third, a gap occurs when there is a statutory provision which regulates the case at hand, but this provision is vague or equivocal. In such circumstances, to decide the case at hand, one may try to ascertain the meaning of this provision by recourse to statutory provisions which address cases that are similar to the case at hand or other cases that are regulated by vague/equivocal provision. A gap of this type is named gap intra legem (within the law) and analogy which deals with it is referred to as analogy intra legem (within the law). The similarity upon which statutory analogy depends on may stem from the resemblance of raw facts of the cases being compared, the purpose (the so-called ratio legis which is generally the will of the legislature) of a statutory provision which is applied by analogy or some other sources. Statutory analogy may be also based upon more than one statutory provision or even a spirit of law. In the latter case, it is called analogy iuris (from the law in general) as opposed to analogy legis (from a specific legal provision or provisions).


=''Analogies in precedential law (case law)''

= First, in precedential law (case law), analogies can be drawn from precedent cases (cases decided in past). The judge who decides the case at hand may find that the facts of this case are similar to the facts of one of precedential cases to an extent that the outcomes of these cases are justified to be the same or similar. Such use of analogy in precedential law pertains mainly to the so-called: cases of first impression, i.e. the cases which as yet have not been regulated by any binding judicial precedent (are not covered by a ratio decidendi of such a precedent). Second, in precedential law, reasoning from (dis)analogy is amply employed, while a judge is distinguishing a precedent. That is, upon the discerned differences between the case at hand and the precedential case, a judge reject to decide the case upon the precedent whose ratio decidendi (precedential rule) embraces the case at hand. Third, there is also much room for some other usages of analogy in the province of precedential law. One of them is resort to analogical reasoning, while resolving the conflict between two or more precedents which all apply to the case at hand despite dictating different legal outcome for that case. Analogy can also take part in ascertaining the contents of ratio decidendi, deciding upon obsolete precedents or quoting precedents form other jurisdictions. It is too visible in legal Education, notably in the US (the so-called 'case method').


=''Restrictions on the use of analogy in law''

= In legal matters, sometimes the use of analogy is forbidden (by the very law or common agreement between judges and scholars). The most common instances concern criminal, administrative and tax law. Analogy should not be resorted to in criminal matters whenever its outcome would be unfavorable to the accused or suspect. Such a ban finds its footing in the very principle: "''nullum crimen, nulla poena sine lege''", a principle which is understood in the way that there is no crime (punishment) unless it is expressly provided for in a statutory provision or an already existing judicial precedent. Analogy should be applied with caution in the domain of tax law. Here, the principle: "''nullum tributum sine lege''" justifies a general ban on the employment of analogy that would lead to an increase in taxation or whose results would – for some other reason – be to the detriment to the interests of taxpayers. Extending by analogy those provisions of administrative law that restrict human rights and the rights of the citizens (particularly the category of the so-called "individual rights" or "basic rights") is as a rule prohibited. Analogy generally should also not be resorted to in order to make the citizen's burdens and obligations larger or more vexatious. The other limitations on the use of analogy in law, among many others, pertain to: * the analogical extension of statutory provisions that involve exceptions to more general statutory regulation or provisions (this restriction flows from the well-known, especially in civil law continental legal systems, Latin maxims: "''exceptiones non sunt excendentae''", "''exception est strictissimae interpretationis''" and "''singularia non sunt extendenda''") * the making of the use of an analogical argument with regard to those statutory provisions which comprise enumerations (lists) * extending by analogy those statutory provisions that give impression that the Legislator intended to regulate some issues in an exclusive (exhaustive) manner (such a manner is especially implied when the wording of a given statutory provision involves such pointers as: "only", "exclusively", "solely", "always", "never") or which have a plain precise meaning. In civil (private) law, the use of analogy is as a rule permitted or even ordered by law. But also in this branch of law there are some restrictions confining the possible scope of the use of an analogical argument. Such is, for instance, the prohibition to use analogy in relation to provisions regarding time limits or a general ban on the recourse to analogical arguments which lead to extension of those statutory provisions which envisage some obligations or burdens or which order (mandate) something. The other examples concern the usage of analogy in the field of property law, especially when one is going to create some new property rights by it or to extend these statutory provisions whose terms are unambiguous (unequivocal) and plain (clear), e.g.: be of or under a certain age.


In teaching strategies

Analogies as defined in rhetoric are a comparison between words, but an analogy can be used in teaching as well. 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 topic and relate back to previous knowledge. Shawn Glynn, a professor in the department of educational psychology and instructional technology at the University of Georgia, developed a theory on teaching with analogies and developed steps to explain the process of teaching with this method. The steps for teaching with analogies are as follows: Step one is introducing the new topic that is about to be taught and giving some general knowledge on the subject. Step two is reviewing the concept that the students already know to ensure they have the proper knowledge to assess the similarities between the two concepts. Step three is finding relevant features within the analogy of the two concepts. Step four is finding similarities between the two concepts so students are able to compare and contrast them in order to understand. Step five is indicating where the analogy breaks down between the two concepts. And finally, step six is drawing a conclusion about the analogy and comparison of the new material with the already learned material. Typically this method is used to learn topics in science. In 1989 Kerry Ruef, a teacher, began an entire program, which she titled The Private Eye Project. It is a method of teaching that revolves around using analogies in the classroom to better explain topics. She thought of the idea to use analogies as a part of curriculum because she was observing objects once and she said, "my mind was noting what else each object reminded me of..." This led her to teach with the question, "what does he subject or topicremind you of?" The idea of comparing subjects and concepts led to the development of The Private Eye Project as a method of teaching. The program is designed to build critical thinking skills with analogies as one of the main themes revolving around it. While Glynn focuses on using analogies to teach science, The Private Eye Project can be used for any subject including writing, math, art, social studies, and invention. It is now used by thousands of schools around the country. There are also various pedagogic innovations now emerging that use visual analogies for cross-disciplinary teaching and research, for instance between 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 analogical and approximations, without that implying any falsity. 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 negative language. The use of theological statements in syllogisms must take into account their essential analogical character, in that every analogy breaks down when stretched beyond its intended meaning.


Islam

Islamic jurisprudence makes ample use of analogy as a means of extrapolating from sources of law. The bounds and rules employed to make analogical deduction vary greatly between
madhabs A ( ar, مذهب ', , "way to act". pl. مَذَاهِب , ) is a school of thought within ''fiqh'' (Islamic jurisprudence). The major Sunni Mathhab are Hanafi, Maliki, Shafi'i and Hanbali. They emerged in the ninth and tenth centuries CE an ...
and to a lesser extent individual scholars. It is nonetheless a generally accepted source of law within jurisprudential epistemology, with the chief opposition to it forming the dhahiri (ostensiblist) school.


Everyday life

* Analogy can be used in order to find solutions for the problematic situations (problems) that occur in everyday life. If something works with one thing, it may also work with another thing which is similar to the former. * Analogy facilitates choices and predictions as well as opinions/assessments people are forced to do daily.


Hybrid analogies operating between disciplines

Visual analogies have been developed that enable researchers to "investigate literary studies by means of attractive analogies taken principally from science and mathematics. These analogies bring to literary discourse a stock of exciting visual ideas for teaching and research..."Visual Analogy/ Visualizations http://www.mariopetrucci.com/Visualizations.htm Retrieved: 08-05-2018


See also

* Argumentum a contrario *
Argumentum a fortiori ''Argumentum a fortiori'' (literally "argument from the stronger eason) (, ) is a form of argumentation that draws upon existing confidence in a proposition to argue in favor of a second proposition that is held to be implicit in, and even more c ...
*
Case-based reasoning In artificial intelligence and philosophy, case-based reasoning (CBR), broadly construed, is the process of solving new problems based on the solutions of similar past problems. In everyday life, an auto mechanic who fixes an engine by recallin ...
/
Casuistry In ethics, casuistry ( ) is a process of reasoning that seeks to resolve moral problems by extracting or extending theoretical rules from a particular case, and reapplying those rules to new instances. This method occurs in applied ethics and ju ...
*
Commonsense reasoning In artificial intelligence (AI), commonsense reasoning is a human-like ability to make presumptions about the type and essence of ordinary situations humans encounter every day. These assumptions include judgments about the nature of physical objec ...
*
Conceptual blending In cognitive linguistics, conceptual blending, also called conceptual integration or view application, is a theory of cognition developed by Gilles Fauconnier and Mark Turner. According to this theory, elements and vital relations from diverse scen ...
*
Duck test The duck test is a form of abductive reasoning, usually expressed as "If it looks like a duck, swims like a duck, and quacks like a duck, then it probably is a duck." The test implies that a person can identify an unknown subject by observing t ...
* False analogy *
Hypocatastasis Hypocatastasis is a figure of speech that declares or implies a resemblance, representation or comparison. It differs from a metaphor, because in a metaphor the two nouns are both named and given; while, in hypocatastasis, only one is named and th ...
*
I know it when I see it The phrase "I know it when I see it" is a colloquial expression by which a speaker attempts to categorize an observable fact or event, although the category is subjective or lacks clearly defined parameters. The phrase was used in 1964 by United St ...
* Parable *
Sensemaking Sensemaking or sense-making is the process by which people give meaning to their collective experiences. It has been defined as "the ongoing retrospective development of plausible images that rationalize what people are doing" ( Weick, Sutcliffe, ...
*
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 often compared wit ...
*
Intuitive statistics Intuitive statistics, or folk statistics, refers to the cognitive phenomenon where organisms use data to make generalizations and predictions about the world. This can be a small amount of sample data or training instances, which in turn contribute ...


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 The Association of Christian Philosophers of India (ACPI) was founded in 1976 at Aluva, Kerala, India under the inspiration of Dr Richard De Smet, SJ and the initiative of Dr Albert Nambiaparambil, CMI. Activities The chief activity is the ann ...
. Ed. Johnson J. Puthenpurackal. Bangalore: ATC. 1:64-68. * Cornuéjols, A. (1996)
Analogie, principe d’économie et complexité algorithmique
In ''Actes des 11èmes Journées Françaises de l’Apprentissage''. Sète. * Cornuéjols, A. (1996)
Analogy, principle of economy and computational complexity
* 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 Dedre Dariel Gentner (born 1944) is an American cognitive and developmental psychologist. She is the Alice Gabriel Twight Professor of Psychology at Northwestern University. She is a leading researcher in the study of analogical reasoning. Wor ...
,
Keith Holyoak Keith James Holyoak (born January 16, 1950) is a Canadian-American researcher in cognitive psychology and cognitive science, working on human thinking and reasoning. Holyoak's work focuses on the role of analogy in thinking. His work showed ho ...
, and
Boicho Kokinov Boicho Kokinov ( bg, Бойчо Кокинов, 27 December 1960 – 10 May 2013) was an associate professor in cognitive science and computer science at the New Bulgarian University and the director of the Central and East European Center for Cogn ...
(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
'. Conceptual modelling Philosophical arguments Semantics