Analogy

Consulting a dictionary and an encyclopedia, you will find definitions and explanations on the subject of analogy. My impression is that those to follow are far clearer and more comprehensive.

If two things look or behave similarly, it is said that they resemble each other in a given attribute. But the pair 4:8 is said to resemble the pair 8:16 by way of ratio. One's country is called 'motherland' by way of simile, for the country is like a mother to us.

ATRIBUTE, RATIO, AND SIMILE are the bases on which analogies stand. In metaphor, one word or phrase are utilized for rhetoric purposes, being therefore literary devices, as when one says, "Her emerald eyes," to indicate that her eyes are green and brilliant. Simile, per se, is another rhetorical device, where the accessory word 'like' makes the difference with metaphor, as in: "Her eyes are like emeralds."

One famous analogy states: "If one finds a watch, one concludes that there is a watchmaker; therefore, if there is a world, there must be a world-maker." This proposed analogy is by attribute: a watch has the attribute of being made; an analogous attribute is ascribed to the world. However, since the existence of a world-maker has not been demonstrated, this analogy remains hypothetical. Not so with Galileo's postulate that as Jupiter has satellite moons, so the planets are Sun's satellites. This postulate was eventually proven as being true. Again, this analogy is by attribute: Jupiter's attribute of having satellites is analogous to Sun's attribute of having planet satellites.

Most significant analogies are by attribute; they serve as the principle of postulates, to be tested scientifically. They are frequently exploited --wrongly-- in order to 'make a point.'

It should be clear by now that analogies compare a pair of objects or concepts with another pair, to find a possible parallelism. This principle was enunciated by Aristotle in his tractate TOPICS, where he wrote that likeness is present when A is to B, as C is to D, or when A is in B, as C is in D. Analogy tests are employed in psychometric evaluations, as when the subject has to complete the following: Day-Light, Night-..., where the answer is 'Dark.' (Is it, really?)

When my children reached the age to understand the concept, we spent some time playing the 'Game of Analogies,' whereby I offered a pair of objects or concepts as the model and three pairs as samples, one of which had to be chosen as the most analogous, explaining why so. The three samples were made to appear in some way analogous to the model --the important point being finding a fundamental basis for the choice. Take the following example:

The model is:

White ball-Red ball

The samples are:

1.- Red cube-White pyramid

2.- Black cube-Green cube

3.- Red table-White table

The first and third samples share the same colors as the model; not so the pair of cubes. Yet, color is a superficial attribute, compared to shape. Since two balls are present in the model, I expect twin objects to be the choice for analogy, therefore I choose cubes, since table is not a geometrical form. Had I written 'sphere' instead of 'ball' would have facilitated the choice, because not all balls are spherical. I decided to make the choice more difficult, leading to argumentation about ambiguity, one of the central themes of the D-SP.

A number of analogies might be presented.