Q&A: The Foundations of Analogy
The Foundations of Analogy
Question
With God’s help,
Hello,
I wanted to ask: do you know of a worldview that manages to explain in a reasonable way our use of analogy and induction, causality, Ockham’s razor, and the like—without a sixth sense and all kinds of far-fetched parapsychological explanations…
Answer
I know one like that very well, from close up. There is no need for parapsychology or mysticism, only to acknowledge the facts. We have such faculties. You can cast doubt on our sight or hearing too, and you won’t merit any explanations other than those you called here “parapsychological” or “mystical.” The conviction that accompanies sight also accompanies analogy and generalization (not necessarily with the same intensity), and therefore there is no reason to cast doubt on them.
The view I mentioned above is my own. It is laid out in my books, mainly Two Carts and Truth and Unstable.
Discussion on Answer
If you explain the matter to that fellow, he’ll understand that he’s being an idiot. And if he insists on being an idiot, then I don’t know what to do with him.
Do you agree that for about two thousand years since Plato, nobody thought that his mind also “reads” apart from calculating calculations, except perhaps a few fringe philosophers? So doesn’t that seem to you like a somewhat “forced” excuse…
Therefore my question is: is there no other reasonable way to arrive at accepting the analogical foundations? Because to me it sounds like a question with no solution, apart from the religious solution that there is a God and He makes sure to coordinate things “prophetically,” and so on—but that is somewhat the same style as your solution..
Does anyone understand what the Rabbi is saying? Or is it only hard for me?
I absolutely do understand. The intuition is simple, even though not everyone can explain and clarify it.
The point is that if you ask an ordinary person, “Do you think your mind also has a capacity for apprehension and not only a capacity for thought?” he’ll think you’re crazy. On the other hand, if you ask an average person whether he thinks he hears, then here too he’ll think you’re crazy because of the very question itself…
And so I’m asking whether there is a possible justification that explains this reasonably, without “mystical” explanations.