A Review of Mental Leaps: Analogy in Creative Thought

Of course, the book's authors, psychologist Keith Holyoak and philosopher Paul Thagard, have good reason for this discussion: to focus on the "analogy war" that went on for years in the upper echelons of the U.S. government. Politicians think by analogy all the time, and the fates of nations hang on their idiosyncratic analogical instincts, wise or not. Military leaders, too, are guided by precedents, and Holyoak and Thagard ironically note that generals often prepare for the war that they last fought. However, they also point out that one can select one's precedents in a deeper manner than that. In fact, they devote three pages to George Ball, undersecretary of state in the Johnson administration, "who history must now credit as the greatest American political analogist of his time" (p. To be sure, Ball saw the appeal of the Korea, Munich, and dominochain analogies, but in each, he also saw serious weaknesses; more important, he felt he saw deeper similarities to the situation the ...