The Uses of Analogies in Seventeenth and Eighteenth Century Science

Gingras, Yves; Guay, Alexandre

doi:10.1162/posc_a_00035

Cited by 11 publications

(3 citation statements)

References 9 publications

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“…In scientific practice, analogy has long been an important classifying principle (see Gingras and Guay 2011). In chemistry, from the mid-eighteenth century onwards, the arrangement of classes of substances was dictated by two principles: analogy and composition (see Klein and Lefèvre 2007, chap.…”

Section: -Classification As a Basis For Analogical Inferencementioning

confidence: 99%

“…While the role of analogical reasoning in physics has been thoroughly explored, a similar investigation with respect to chemistry is relatively absent from philosophy of science. Furthermore, in their survey of eighteenth-century references to analogy in the Philosophical Transactions of the Royal Society, Gingras and Guay (2011) have found that analogy was most commonly used as a tool for classification. Yet, whereas recent case studies have shown the role of analogy in conceptual development in synthetic biology (Knuuttila and Loettgers 2014), as evidence in archaeology and the historical sciences (Currie 2016), as a methodological principle helping scientists develop and test hypotheses (Fisher 2018) and in providing reasons to pursue a theory or model in physics (Nyrup 2020), few studies explore the ways in which analogy and classification are linked in scientific practice.…”

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

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Analogy and Composition in Early Nineteenth-Century Chemistry The Case of Aluminium

Hijmans

2022

Euro Jnl Phil Sci

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Around fifteen years before the chemical substance alumina (aluminium oxide) could be decomposed in the laboratory, it was identified as a compound and predicted to contain a new element called 'aluminium'. Using this episode from early nineteenth-century chemistry as a case study for the use of analogical reasoning in science, this paper examines how chemists relied on chemical classifications for the prediction of aluminium. I argue that chemists supplemented direct evidence of chemical decomposition with analogical inferences in order to evaluate the composition of substances. Since they were established on the basis of relevant similarities in chemical properties, classifications were taken to reflect so-called 'chemical analogies' between substances. In combination with the knowledge that analogous properties indicated similarities in composition, this enabled chemists to infer the composition of experimentally indecomposable substances by analogy. The trust in such analogical inferences, even if they could not be confirmed through experiment, was justified by pragmatic considerations. Whereas the possibility of decomposing a substance depended on the available laboratory techniques, chemical analogies were thought to last independently of internal composition. It was therefore more practical to keep well-established classes of substances together rather than separate them on the basis of experimental results that might evolve as new techniques were developed. Besides highlighting the links between analogical reasoning and classification, this paper also illustrates the importance of analogy in the evaluation of elementary nature in the early nineteenth century.

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Section: -Classification As a Basis For Analogical Inferencementioning

confidence: 99%

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

Analogy and Composition in Early Nineteenth-Century Chemistry The Case of Aluminium

Hijmans

2022

Euro Jnl Phil Sci

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show abstract

“…The use of metaphors and analogies as narrative technique, for example, is a case in point. Gingras and Guay (2011) document the use of analogies and analogous thinking following the Industrial Revolution by text mining the Philosophical Transactions of the Royal Society of London. As they uncover, analogies were useful in attempting to explain a complex novel idea or discovery and their use gained in frequency and popularity.…”

Section: Ant and Resiliencementioning

confidence: 99%