What are the characteristics of analogical thinking in ancient times

1, analogical thinking has the activation of imagination, revelation and improve the reliability of conjecture and other characteristics.

2, first, the activation of imagination. Analogical reasoning by association can fully stimulate the imagination of the creative subject, and make it a clear direction. Appropriate analogies can make the creative subject to produce reasonable associations, stimulate the imagination of the creative subject to break the boundaries of traditional thinking. For many years, people have thought that circle is a perfect curve and ball is a perfect shape. However, the circular motion is obviously not in line with the observation results of Tigu and Kepler. Kepler then relied on actual observations and finally found an elliptical orbit by exploring many eccentric circular orbits. Kepler's use of imagination was stimulated by analogies with geometrical figures.

3. Second, revelation. Analogical reasoning has a significant revelation function, it can provide more specific clues for the exploration of creativity, especially when the creative object of the material is not enough to carry out systematic induction and deduction, analogy plays a "trailblazer" role. In the creative process, often the mechanism of a problem is clarified, it can be similar to a large number of problems to provide a reasonable revelation.

4, third, to improve the reliability of the conjecture. Analogical reasoning in the formation and formulation of hypotheses often play an important role in strengthening. Because in the creative process, people always want to put forward a more reliable hypothesis to explain the unknown phenomena and problems, so as to shorten the exploration time. Relying on analogical reasoning, the use of already confirmed regularity of knowledge, extended to similar fields or objects, can greatly improve the reliability of the hypothesis.