ИСТИНА

Analogical thinking and the use of analogy in communication is one of the most frequently mentioned means in systems science, or philosophy, due to its integrative possibilities, its effectiveness in interdisciplinary communication, and its creative potential in scientific research and technological innovation. Analogies have been used to great effect in the physical sciences, as well as in mathematics, and in problem solving. Analogy has also been effectively used in communicating science and technology to the general public, in relating effectively information systems analysts to users and, in general, in any kind of human communication. Some authors go further and assure that analogy is at the very core of cognition. Hofstadter, for example, asserts that, a concept is a package of analogies, and he is ready to suggest that every concept we have is essentially nothing but a tightly packaged bundle of analogies, and to suggest that all we do when we think is to move fluidly from concept to concept—in other words, to leap from one analogy-bundle to another—and to suggest, lastly, that such concept-to-concept leaps are themselves made via analogical connection, to boot. The process of inexact matching between prior categories and new things being perceived…is analogy making par excellence. This kind of matching processes is at the very core of interdisciplinary communication: to match prior categories, related to the researcher’s discipline, to another one, to a new one for him/her, is an inexact matching process that requires analogical thinking and communication via adequate analogies, images, and metaphors. Identification of analogies among disciplines is being increasingly favored by academic and research institutes. A progressively larger number of eminent scientists are supporting inter- and trans-disciplinary research and communication. Some of them decided to dedicate an increasing intellectual effort to this issue, as it is the case of the theoretical physicist, and Nobel Laureate,Murray Gell-Mann. He explains his perspective on this issue in the following terms.