Publications
Publication details [#8978]
Pribram, Karl H. 1990. From metaphors to models: The use of analogy in neuropsychology In Leary, David E., Mitchell G. Ash and William R. Woodward. Metaphors in the History of Psychology (Cambridge Studies in the History of Psychology Series). Cambridge , UK: Cambridge University Press . pp. 79–103. 25 pp.
Publication type
Article in book
Publication language
English
Keywords
Place, Publisher
Cambridge , UK: Cambridge University Press
Abstract
(From end)
In sum, metaphorical insight, reasoned analogy, and empirical modeling are woven together in the fabric of scientific innovation, in the "hard" areas of psychology as in the "soft" areas. I have emphasized the process of proper analogical reasoning - the process leading from metaphor to model - because, although metaphorical insight is fundamental, it will not get us far in achieving scientific understanding unless we subject it to the sort of sustained reasoning by analogy that has been illustrated throughout this essay.
Looking to the future, there is no reason to expect that the sort of reasoning by analogy that has wrought current scientific understanding in neuropsychology will cease. New developments, technical and theoretical, in engineering, chemistry, interpersonal psychology, and other yet unspecified domains, will continue to cross-fertilize the brain sciences -leading from vague but pregnant metaphors to more precise and testable models - provided that scientists continue to reason, carefully, by analogy.
(Karl Pribram, p. 98)