An analogy used to explain an idea in science,
"Fifthly, mathematicians as well as physicians must agree with the statements emphasised by Galen here and there: "Nature does nothing without purpose"' and "So wise is our Maker that each of his works has not one use, but two or three or often more." Since we see that this one motion of the earth satisfies an almost infinite number of appearances, should we not attribute to God, the creator of nature, that skill which we observe in the common makers of clocks? For they carefully avoid inserting in the mechanism any superfluous wheel or any whose function could be served better by another with a slight change of position. What could dissuade my teacher [Copernicus], as a mathematician, from adopting a serviceable theory of the motion of the terrestrial globe, when he saw that on the assumption of this hypothesis there sufficed, for the construction of a sound science of celestial phenomena, a single eighth sphere, and that motionless, the sun at rest in the centre of the universe, and for the motions of the other planets, epicycles on an eccentric or eccentrics on an eccentric or epicycles on an epicycle? Moreover, the motion of the earth in its circle produces the inequalities of all the planets except the moon; this one motion alone seems to be the cause of every apparent inequality at a distance from the sun, in the case of the three superior planets, and in the neighbourhood of the sun, in the case of Venus and Mercury."
Rheticus (1959) The Narratio Prima (1539, Translated by. E. Rosen), in Three Copernican Treatises (Ed. E. Rosen) Dover Publications (pp.107-196).
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.
The idea that nature acts purposely would today be considered teleological.
Read about teleology in science
Read examples of teleological (pseudo)explanations for scientific phenomena
Read about types of pseudo-explanations
Examples of teleological statements are included in a document listing a wide range of examples of science analogies, similes, metaphors and the like, drawn from diverse sources, which can be downloaded using this link: 'Creative Comparisons: Making Science Familiar through Language. An illustrative catalogue of figurative comparisons and analogies for science concepts.'
