Snelders H A
University of Utrecht, Institute for the History of Science, Niederlande.
NTM. 1994;2(2):65-75.
In chemistry (and natural science in general) reasoning in terms of analogy may be of great practical value as well as of theoretical significance. At the same, however, the use of analogy is risky and the results are uncertain. In alchemy and iatrochemistry analogies between the living and the non-living nature have been carried too far. At the end of the 19th century an analogy was drawn between chemical phenomena and the Darwinian theory of evolution. Another example of an overexaggerated analogy can be found in Lavoisier's theory of acids, where oxygen was considered to be the general principle of acidity. Reasoning by analogy is mostly based on an inner conviction. It leads to provisional predictions in such cases where the required facts are not, or incompletely, at our disposal.
在化学领域（以及一般意义上的自然科学），类比推理可能具有重大的实用价值和理论意义。然而，与此同时，类比的使用存在风险，其结果也具有不确定性。在炼金术和医药化学中，生物界与非生物界之间的类比被过度延伸。19世纪末，有人在化学现象与达尔文进化论之间进行类比。另一个类比过度的例子可以在拉瓦锡的酸理论中找到，在该理论中，氧被视为酸性的普遍原则。类比推理主要基于内心的信念。在我们没有或不完全掌握所需事实的情况下，它会得出临时的预测。
