Arguing from Analogy

   I am reading books on conflict resolution, and am trying to wrap my head around a Buddhist notion of conflict and how it's resolved. One of the things I reflected on today is the idea of 'using analogies' to connect different arguments that may seem quite different. Why are analogies useful? As I was teaching the Grade 4 students a few weeks back, analogies (or metaphors) can sometimes be ways of bridging the gaps between one thing that's familiar to us and something that is unfamiliar. In R.L. Stevenson's Treasure Island, Jim Hawkins remarks on how the turtles on the island are similar in size to bathtubs. When we read this passage, we can better imagine what the turtle might look like by analogy with something more culturally familiar to us.
   Analogies are not just clever metaphors, however. They are also ways of thinking about new things or 'unfamiliar' concepts and situations which might bring people closer to an empathetic understanding of the new. By somehow comparing or imagining something new as similar to an experience one has had, one can better relate to the new in an embodied way. Without this thinking by analogy, we might have a harder time establishing a link to something that is completely new. The concept may be so completely new to us that without an experiential base, we are inclined to reject it in some way.
   I have decided to make it a practice to approach things analogically when I am not sure how to understand or interpret them. The reason is that unless this is done, one has a hard time integrating aspects of thinking into one's repertoire. But while metaphor and analogy are useful, it might also be interesting to suspend these tools and allow oneself to be shocked by the new concept, to the point where one can be changed by it. If one only assimilates new into already existing experience, they may not have the opportunity to be truly challenged by the experience. But analogies might be ways to approach new things in ways that deepen one's connection to them or even reframe them in a new or interesting way.