Analogical Scientific Discoveries : Cognitive Case Studies(Discovery Science)

Abstract

This study uses an interview method to investigate how scientists use analogies in actual remarkable scientific discoveries. The observed cases of analogy are classified into six types according to the two criteria of similarity and transfer, only four of which types actually include the observed cases. Each typical case of three of the four types is shown and explained in relation to the availability of the goal of the analogy and to other forms of reasoning. One of the three cases is especially considered a case of analogy with the reformation of knowledge based on thematic abstraction. whose dynamic process has not fully been investigated.