Get back to me if you can figure this out:
Analogy is both the cognitive process of transferring information from a particular subject (the analogue or source) to another particular subject (the target), and a linguistic expression corresponding to such a process.
In a narrower sense, analogy is an inference or an argument from one particular to another particular.
Analogy is understood as identity of relation between any two ordered pairs, whether of mathematical nature or not.
Kant's Critique of Judgment 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 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 speakers will immediately give the right answer to the analogy question (sole), it is quite more difficult to identify and describe the exact relation that holds both between 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. Analogy and abstraction are different cognitive processes, and analogy is often an easier one.
Analogy is both the cognitive process of transferring information from a particular subject (the analogue or source) to another particular subject (the target), and a linguistic expression corresponding to such a process.
In a narrower sense, analogy is an inference or an argument from one particular to another particular.
Analogy is understood as identity of relation between any two ordered pairs, whether of mathematical nature or not.
Kant's Critique of Judgment 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 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 speakers will immediately give the right answer to the analogy question (sole), it is quite more difficult to identify and describe the exact relation that holds both between 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. Analogy and abstraction are different cognitive processes, and analogy is often an easier one.
