Synonyms
The Concepts “Analogy” and “Invention”
Analogy
An analogy is usually considered as a structural mapping between a source (base) and a target domain. To establish an analogy, common substructures of the two domains are identified and mapped to each other, resulting in an analogical relation. The establishment of an analogy is usually governed by certain constraints, like systematicity, structural consistency, or a one-to-one restriction on possible mappings, although there is no general accepted set of such principles. Analogy-making can also be regarded as the establishment of a generalization, identifying an abstract core that consists of the common structures of both domains and ignores surface appearance and domain peculiarities (cf. Fig. 1). Analogies are usually not judged right or wrong; rather, they can be more or less plausible, based on the degree of structural coherence that they exhibit, possibly depending on the context and...
This is a preview of subscription content, log in via an institution.
Buying options
Tax calculation will be finalised at checkout
Purchases are for personal use only
Learn about institutional subscriptionsReferences
Altshuller G. Creativity as an exact science. New York: Gordon & Breach; 1984.
Argand J-R. Philosophie mathématique. Essai sur une manière de représenter les quantités imaginaires, dans les constructions géométriques. Annales de Mathématiques pures et appliquées. 1813;4:133–46.
Burki L, Cavalluci D. Measuring the results of creative acts in R & D: literature review and perspectives. In: Cavalluci D, de Guio R, Cascini G, editors. Building innovation pipelines through computer-aided innovation, CAI 2011. Heidelberg: Springer; 2011. p. 163–77.
Chomsky N. Syntactic structure. The Hague/Paris: Mouton; 1957.
Do EY, Gross MD. Drawing analogies: finding visual references by sketching. Proceedings, Association for Computer Aided Design in Architecture, 1995 National Conference; 1995; Seattle.
Goel AK. Design, analogy and creativity. IEEE Expert. 1997 May-June; 12(3): 62–70.
Holyoak KJ, Thagard P. Mental leaps: analogy in creative thought. Cambridge, MA: MIT Press; 1995.
Lakoff G, Núñez R. Where mathematics comes from: how the embodied mind brings mathematics into being. New York: Basic Books; 2000.
Martinez M, Besold TR, Abdel-Fattah A, Gust H, Schmidt M, Krumnack U, Kühnberger K-U. Theory blending as a framework for creativity in systems for general intelligence. In: Wang P, Goertzel B, editors. Theoretical foundations of artificial general intelligence. New York: Springer; 2012.
McGraw GE. Letter spirit (part one): emergent high-level perception of gridletters using fluid concepts. PhD Thesis, Indiana University; September 1995.
Polya G. Mathematics and plausible reasoning: induction and analogy in mathematics. Princeton: Princeton University Press; 1954.
Schoen D. Displacement of concepts. New York: Humanities Press; 1963.
Author information
Authors and Affiliations
Corresponding author
Editor information
Editors and Affiliations
Rights and permissions
Copyright information
© 2013 Springer Science+Business Media LLC
About this entry
Cite this entry
Krumnack, U., Kühnberger, KU., Schwering, A., Besold, T.R. (2013). Analogies and Analogical Reasoning in Invention. In: Carayannis, E.G. (eds) Encyclopedia of Creativity, Invention, Innovation and Entrepreneurship. Springer, New York, NY. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-1-4614-3858-8_128
Download citation
DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/978-1-4614-3858-8_128
Publisher Name: Springer, New York, NY
Print ISBN: 978-1-4614-3857-1
Online ISBN: 978-1-4614-3858-8
eBook Packages: Business and Economics