Analogy

An analogy is a comparison or relationship between two things to illustrate a third factor. Analogies are often confused with similes. A simile compares two different things with the purpose of creating a new meaning. In that case, the comparison is made using “like” or “as.” An analogy is related to simile in that it shows how two different things are similar. However, an analogy is much more complex than a simile. Rather than just a figure of speech or literary strategy, an analogy is used to present a logical argument in different fields, as in mathematics, philosophy, and law. An analogy can be used for rhetorical style or effect; however, it is often employed to demonstrate that two things are alike by pointing out their shared characteristics, with the purpose of proving that if two things are similar in particular ways, they are similar in other ways as well.

Brief History

The word “analogy” comes from the Greek term analogos, which according to the Oxford Dictionaries means “proportionate”; it originally referred to a proportional correspondence. Analogy serves to compare things that are different but have things in common. A simple analogy may be something like “he is as quiet as a mouse” or “he ate like a horse,” clearly referring to qualities or quantities that, though not exact, are relatively or proportionately similar.

Many examples of analogy can be found in biblical scripture. One such example can be seen in the allegory of the Good Shepherd, which appears in the New Testament in John 10:1–21. The verse reflects the pastoral culture of desert tribes, so that the analogy of a religious leader—in this case, Jesus—to a shepherd who would give his life to protect his flock, serves to illustrate the abstract idea that Jesus is a guide of his people. In the Old Testament, Psalm 23, attributed to King David, uses a similar analogy but with God as a shepherd protecting his follower (the speaker) from want of basic material and spiritual sustenance, as well as from evil.

Scholars in medieval Europe used analogy to understand problems of logic and theology. They were interested in issues such as words having more than one meaning, whether they were related or not. For instance, they were concerned with the language used to refer to God. They debated how to describe a perfect being such as God without changing the meaning of the words in human vocabulary. Analogical structures were thought of as particularly useful to analyze reality. At the time, a common belief was that the universe had an ordered structure that could also be seen in the patterns of its smallest parts. Thus, they used analogies in order to infer conclusions from one pattern to the other. This perception of the laws of nature was not only applicable to science, but also to the juridical and political spheres. The natural world was understood as a hierarchical structure, and thus it was believed that human society should also exhibit such hierarchies, with dominant and subordinate people.

During the scientific revolution, analogies became common usage to explain scientific principles and ideas by comparing phenomena from the natural and mathematical fields. Some of these principles also inspired novel ideas, which in turn became hypotheses, about how the natural world functions, and they are similar to the ways in which today a computer and its software is often used as common example to illustrate how the human brain and mind operates.

Analogy Today

Policymakers, legislators, and scholars have often invoked the so-called lessons of history to justify policies. Experts argue that leaders use analogies not only to justify policies, but also to perform tasks such as decision making and information processing. Many studies have analyzed such cases as the process of decision making that led to the United States decision to become involved in the Vietnam War. Analogical thinking, then, can often be used in the field of psychology and other social sciences to account for how people make decisions.

Arguments based upon precedent and analogy are known in many contemporary legal systems around the world, especially those based on a common law model. It is a central form of reasoning in English common law, the system that forms the basis of law in the United Kingdom and the United States. Precedent refers to a principle established in a previous legal case and considered as binding—or at least persuasive—in a later case. Analogy, in this situation, refers to following the earlier decision because both cases are similar. Critics of that system cite the difficulties of defining how two cases are the same for the purposes of precedent and of establishing why one case should abide by the decision of another.

The success of analogies relies upon whether provable or testable consequences can be legitimately deduced from them. It would not be considered valid today, for example, to argue that, just because a black hole is similar in some ways to water funneling down a drain or a whirlpool, that the two phenomena therefore affect matter and light in completely similar ways. In the arena of the social and political spheres, biological analogies are often used to argue that human societies and institutions have an organic or natural structure instead of one that is socially and culturally constructed. Such analogies can be misleading, as they ignore the fact that individuals in societies also have goals, hopes, responsibilities, and rights. In other words, individuals in society have free will and autonomy, making such an analogy problematic. Analogical arguments are weak unless they can be supported by valid facts, statements, or arguments.

Beginning in the fourteenth century, the study of analogy gradually shifted from linguistic usages for theological or logistics purposes to the nature of the concepts that correspond to words used in analogies. For instance, in the sentence “Time is like a river,” time is set as similar to a river, and not because of the similarities in physical properties. The time and river analogy may lead people to think about the currents of water as flow, the flow of time, and even of history and life. Although it works for illustrative purposes, there are some problems with taking analogies for granted. When usages become common parlance in a culture, people who use them may come to think of the analogies as truths or statements of fact.

Bibliography

“Analogy.” Encyclopaedia Britannica. Encyclopaedia Britannica, 2014. Web. 22 Aug. 2014.

“Analogy.” Oxford Dictionaries. Oxford UP, 2014. Web. 22 Aug. 2014.

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