Analogies are comparisons used to create or reinforce arguments and increase understanding. They have been used in linguistics, rhetoric, math, engineering, and law. Analogies are used in academic testing, legal cases, and literature to help readers understand ideas. However, analogies can be reductive and oversimplify complex relationships.
Simply put, analogies are comparisons. In more specific terms, analogies are cognitive processes that have been employed since ancient times in the fields of linguistics, rhetoric, mathematics, engineering and law. Analogies can be used to create or reinforce arguments. They can also be used to increase understanding of one topic by comparing it to another. This is done by comparing an unfamiliar topic or idea with one that is quite familiar. By making an analogy, the unfamiliar topic or idea becomes easier to understand.
Many people are familiar with the analogies of their use in academic testing. Some educators and testing companies will test a student’s understanding of a subject by comparing it to another subject. Say, for example, an English teacher was testing her students’ knowledge of characters in Shakespeare’s Hamlet. The teacher can include the following type of analogy question in the test.
Bart Simpson: Marge Simpson :: Prince Hamlet: ___________
This question asks which character has a relationship with Prince Hamlet similar to the relationship between Bart and Marge Simpson. The answer to this question would be “Queen Gertrude” because Gertrude and Hamlet, like Marge and Bart, are mother and son. While it is arguable that Hamlet and Gertrude have a much more complex relationship than Bart and Marge, the analogy here is a tool simply to test knowledge of relationships. This example shows a flaw in the analogies; while they can be very useful cognitive tools, they can also be reductive.
Analogies are often used in legal cases that do not match an established precedent. If a legal case includes matters that have never been handled before in a court of law, there is no precedent to use to adjudicate on them. In these cases, the legal professionals involved often seek out somewhat similar cases. By doing so, it is possible to create analogies between the present case and the previous, similar cases.
Analogies are often used in literature to help a reader understand an idea or to more fully visualize a scene. Here is an example of how an analogy can be used in fiction:
At the end of the worst day of that year, the boy crawled under the covers of his bed like a frightened hermit crab retreats into its shell.
The analogy here is that boy is to his bed as a hermit crab is to its shell or boy: bed :: hermit crab: shell. Similarities and metaphors are closely related to analogies.
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