
Meaning of Analogy
Analogy emanates from the Latin analogy although with a more remote origin in a Greek word that can be translated as “similarity” or “proportion”. This Greek term was made up of three clearly differentiated parts:
• The prefix “ana-“, which is equivalent to “over or against”.
• The word “logos”, which can be translated as “word or reason”.
• The suffix “-ia”, which is used to indicate “quality”.
According to DigoPaul, analogy, therefore, is a term that indicates a relationship of similarity between different things. The concept allows us to refer to the reasoning that is based on the detection of similar attributes in different beings or things.
For example: “I think the public did not understand my analogy between the revolver and the microphone”, “The mayor surprised by drawing an analogy between the situation that exists in the town and that registered in the main economic centers of the world”, ” I did not like the analogy you made between my career and Gomez’s career. ”
An analogy, therefore, is a comparison between objects, concepts, or experiences. When establishing an analogy, particular and general characteristics are indicated and the similarities and differences between the contrasted elements are established.
In the field of biology, the analogy is the similarity between parts that, in different organisms, have a similar function and the same relative position, although with a different origin.
For linguistics, analogy consists in the creation of new forms or the modification of existing ones based on similarity with others. The grammar, meanwhile, appeals to the notion of analogy to refer to the formal similarity between linguistic elements that fulfill the same function or have significant overlap each other.
Within the scope of language, we would also have to establish that analogy is a literary device that is used to record a similarity relationship between two objects or concepts. In this way, a clear example of this would be the following: “Failure is to defeat as success is to triumph”.
In this sense, we would have to expose, in the same way, that there are what are known as verbal analogies. These are usually a fundamental part, through various exercises, of psychotechnical tests that serve not only to determine a person’s IQ but also their aptitude or their linguistic development.
Thus, for example, it is common for an individual who faces these tests to encounter questions in which he must fill in the missing gaps with one of the words given as alternatives. A sample would be this: “architect is a…. as a computer is a….”.
The law finally argues that the analogy is the method that allows a legal rule is extended, for the same reason, cases are not included in it.
In the same way, we cannot forget that there is a publication that precisely carries in its title the word that concerns us now. We are referring to “Philosophical Analogy”. It is a magazine that deals with philosophy as well as its research and dissemination. It was launched in 1987 and is written in Spanish.