An example of an analogy used to explain an idea in science:
"[Francis] Bacon called efficient causes the vehicles of final causes. The two never conflict…One always acts thorough the other, making knowledge of efficient causes more useful. In the 1623 revision of Advancement ['Of Proficience and Advancement of Learning Divine and Human'], he compared final causes to virgins, who are consecrated to God. Bacon likely intended this to mean they were of utmost worth (as abstract knowledge) but never bear fruit (as practical knowledge). Later biologists, notably Darwin and T. H. Huxley, however, spoke of final causes as 'barren virgins' in order to dismiss them as pointless."
Lucas John Mix (2018) Life Concepts from Aristotle to Darwin. On vegetable souls. Cham, Switzerland: plagrave macmillan.
It seems that Bacon and later biologists were using metaphor, but in this account the comparison is mapped out as an analogy.
Read about metaphor in science
Read about examples of science metaphors
Many examples of science metaphors are listed in 'Creative comparisons: Making science familiar through language. An illustrative catalogue of figurative comparisons and analogies for science concepts'. Free Download.
Read examples of scientific analogies
Many examples of science analogies are listed in 'Creative comparisons: Making science familiar through language. An illustrative catalogue of figurative comparisons and analogies for science concepts'. Free Download.
