Analogical Reasoning as a Discovery Logic.

摘要

Reasoning by analogy is an important means of generating hypotheses about new situations. Psychological research on analogical reasoning has been limited to the format of mathematical proportions. However, this treatment of analogical reasoning is not consistent with the aspect of analogical reasoning that generates hypotheses. A more viable approach is taken by philosophers of science such as Hesse (1966), whose work is used to provide a description of a psychological process of discovery. The key elements of this description include (1) selecting the analogue; (2) comparison of analogues to establish points of correspondance; (3) classification of correspondances into similarities, dissimilarities and neutral features, and (4) refining causal descriptions. (Author)