As applied to physics, the source is a mathematically described process and the target is one without a mathematically described process or without a mathematically described process known to the student. Analogy can suggest a mathematical model to a researcher. Analogy assists the student by demonstrating that knowledge already acquired can help in understanding a new subject. Thus analogy can be an investigative tool and a pedagogical tool. John Holland in his book on Emergence from Chaos to Order attributes the source-target characterization to Maxwell (p. 210) but I have not been able thus far to locate Maxwell’s employment of that characterization. Maxwell spoke about analogy as a useful pedagogical tool in an 1870 address to the Mathematical and Physical Sections of the British Association included in his collective works, volume 2, page 215. At page 219: Analogy `is not only convenient for teaching science in a pleasant and easy manner, but the recognition of the formal analogy between the two systems of ideas leads to a knowledge of both, more profound than could be obtained by studying each system separately.’
Do you know the origin of the source-target analogy?
Please see this useful link:
https://plato.stanford.edu/entries/reasoning-analogy/
Please see this useful link:
https://plato.stanford.edu/entries/reasoning-analogy/
Abdelkader Mohamed Elsayed
Thank you for the link
https://plato.stanford.edu/entries/reasoning-analogy/
The link's article is titled: Analogy and Analogical Reasoning
The article is part of Stanford Encyclopedia of Philosophy, an impressive project of Stanford University. Thank you for bringing this helpful site to my attention and to the attention of other RG users.
Best regards.
- Badges
- Science topic
- Similar topics
- Mathematics