Chapter 21: Analogical Reasoning •     In an analogy, we compare one thing with another. We might describe a person as being like a fox, a prickly rose, a robot, or a hurricane. Love is said to be a disease, a game, a drug, a heatwave, and “a smoke made with the fume of sighs” (Shakespeare's Romeo and Juliet). Less poetically, a physicist might compare an atom to the solar system—electrons revolve around a nucleus at the centre as planets go around the sun.  •     In this section, we focus on the use of analogy in explanation and argument (literary theory distinguishes between metaphors, similes and allegories. They are all based on resemblances, and we treat them all as analogies here). The first point to note is that words such as  similar  and  like  have incomplete meanings. Saying that two things are similar has a concrete meaning only with respect to some standard of comparison. Pick any two objects, and they are bound ...

  Chapter 20: COGNITIVE BIASES •      Cognitive biases are systematic patterns of deviation from rationality or good judgment that can occur in our thinking or decision-making processes. These biases can affect our perception, interpretation, and memory of information, and can lead to errors or distortions in our reasoning. •      There are many different types of cognitive biases, including confirmation bias (the tendency to seek out or interpret information in a way that confirms our pre-existing beliefs), anchoring bias (the tendency to rely too heavily on the first piece of information encountered when making decisions), availability bias (the tendency to give greater weight to more recent or easily recalled information), and many others. •      These biases can be both conscious and unconscious and can impact our behaviours and decision-making in a variety of contexts, including personal, professional, and societal settings. Being a...