The Logic of Analogy: Notes

One is tempted to say that all genuine psychology proceeds by analogy- so we had better consider this logic of analogy- all they say is that it is a kind of induction.

Questions for the logic of analogy: There are vertical and horizontal analogies: same form in 2 like instances, and a visible form like an invisible truth. The corn field in august does not by nature participate in that of which it is an image vertically, but horizontally...

So passing by a cemetery one day, I saw it as a cornfield in like October... golden stalks all done with fruiting...like the old folks home too, is late September...horizontally, it is the same growth and decay as in the human ripeness...

In one sort of analogy, a particular within a circumstance also has the same form as a characteristic of the whole, or comprehensive circumstance. An example: In a whole circumstance where one is being walked over, an instance occurs where one literally tries to walk over you. There are many examples, and these occur by themselves in our speech, intended or not. The logic of comprehensive intelligibles is also going to be amusing and difficult. I suppose I have to start, though, with the traditional teaching of the literatures on what is a metaphor- or Chuck and Mrs. Missler on the kinds of tropes used in the Bible.

Seeing the same form twice demonstrates the intelligibility of both.

This is nous, transcends logic, and is how we GET the first principles on which logic depends, and from which it then reasons "down."

We also see the limits of analogy- the ways the same does not pertain to the two.

A parable is one kind of allegory, while allegory is not necessarily a parable.

Allegory is a kind of analogy- but all analogies are not necessarily allegories.

8 kinds of analogy: Types of analogies

• Part to whole.

• Cause to effect.

• Source to product.

• Object to purpose.

• Characteristic.

• General to specific.

• User to tool.

• Sequences.

It will be fun to collect examples of each.

AI What is the difference between parable and allegory?

Parables typically feature human characters facing moral dilemmas, and their intended message is clear-cut, such as “love your neighbor.” An allegory, on the other hand, is a longer and more elaborate narrative where characters, events, and settings symbolically represent broader abstract ideas or moral principles.

Be fishers of men.

Next week: The Logic of Sarcasm and Comedy.

Analogy works by proportion: as seed is to sower, so the word is to the "teacher." And immortal souls are sown as words, by God. Here we have a 3 tiered natural image. Proportions are different from numbers and shapes, and more akin to harmonies of notes in music. That being unfolds that way is part of what the "forms" as causes means, the higher causing the lower in some sense, and the lower participating in an reflecting or imaging the higher.

Could soul itself somehow be an analogy? That would make sense of how our only way of addressing this being not perceived by the senses is by analogy.

What s analogy in the structure of being? The particulars participate somehow in the same pattern or form, but not as something essential to the lower particulars- fishers of men and fields already white for harvest. Poetry too excells in these paryticulars that somehow reflect the things of the soul.