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Encyclopedia of Global Archaeology pp 205–209Cite as

Analogy in Archaeological Theory

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Introduction and Definition

An analogy is a cognitive process by which new phenomena are comprehended from known experiences, using the latter heuristically in building explanatory models and in directing future research. Analogies perform an important role in theory building and in suggesting new lines of research. An orthodox position in the philosophy of science posits that analogies are not indispensable in systematic scientific explanations (deductive-nomological model) and thus are not part of the process of theoretical justification (hypothetic-deductive model), that is, analogies are significant in the process of discovery but not when scientific justification is at stake because they function in the inductive confirmation of a given theoretical proposition. However, analogical reasoning can perform a clue role in the justification of hypothesis and theories, especially if we accept that scientific practice ultimately rests on analogical extensions of paradigmatic models. An...

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Author information

Authors and Affiliations

  1. Department of History, Universidade Federal do Rio Grande do Sul, Porto Alegre, Rio Grande do Sul (RS), Brazil

    Adriana Schmidt Dias

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  1. Adriana Schmidt Dias
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Correspondence to Adriana Schmidt Dias .

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Editors and Affiliations

  1. Department of Archaeology, Flinders University, Adelaide, SA, Australia

    Claire Smith

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Dias, A.S. (2014). Analogy in Archaeological Theory. In: Smith, C. (eds) Encyclopedia of Global Archaeology. Springer, New York, NY. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-1-4419-0465-2_277

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  • DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/978-1-4419-0465-2_277

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