Thank you, Terry. That is a rich and interesting article. I have come across different categorizations of reasoning, but never in this form. Her research, especially the focus on antinomous reasoning, reminded me of Aristotle's Square of Opposition. She is drawing from a strong tradition. The implications for teaching and learning, though, are harder for me to identify--I'll need to mull the move from theory to practice over a bit. And the analogy of a drafting compass is fantastic. I'd never heard of it. It's hard to imagine a colder, more sterile image. No wonder his lover left!
You might be interested in Patricia Alexander's work in the field of reading on relational reasoning as a substrate of textuality, including analogical reasoning. One of her students won the International Literacy Association's prize for best dissertation based on this theoretical model in 2018, if memory serves. Analogical reasoning is an important resource for human comprehension of text (along with Alexander's other types--anomalous, antithetical, and I can't recall thel exact word she uses but it amounts to paradoxical oh yeah antinomous reasoning. (He twists his arm to pat himself on the back for recalling this detail after plenty of time to forget it:) I'm not what I would think of as an expert in her work, bu I have read some of it, and I agreed with the ILA vis a vis the award in 2018. Btw, 16th century poetry is known ass metaphysical, and the analogies are tortuous--e.g., John Donne's famous drafting compass as an analogy for parted lovers. Nick has a special focus on a special type of poetry. I'm with you: How could we ever measure a poem? Poems are more like dreams than blueprints, eh? Not a great analogy but serviceable maybe. https://www.nature.com/articles/npjscilearn20164
It's interesting that our of the box analogies prove a difficulty where common analogies don't. I wonder if this has to do with the Catholic tendency of analogy, the movement of analogical reasoning towards a language of universal oneness, such as that found in poetic language. Do you think that the success of a poem will eventually be measurable through AI?
Hello Nick. What a great question! I don't know whether the success of a poem can be measured, let alone by AI:) Your response brought to mind an article that frames poetry as an exploratory, deliberate writing process--the antithesis of GenAI output. I'd be curious to hear how you or other writers/poets think about this problem.
I can only speak for myself, but I study sixteenth-century literature, and most of the poetry that I read is very aware of its artificiality. Admittedly, I'm a bit suspicious of the collaborative ethos of the article. Even musicians or actors, both participating in highly collaborative art forms, get "in the zone." The author's claim that "the creative act brings us together and alters our thinking" doesn't mention creators first withdrawing from the world they want to recreate into one of representation. In my experience, it is almost impossible for me to think or write unless in solitude, if not physical then no longer attentive to the physical world. Withdrawal is where I imagine out-of-the-box analogies originate, and it makes me wonder if there is a way to use AI to isolate the out-of-the-box analogies from the common ones.
This is a very perceptive response to the article. Your observation about the writing process is interesting. Creativity as both outward-facing but also a deeply personal self-exploration is a topic that is often neglected in these discussions. Thanks for that insight, Nick!
Thank you, Terry. That is a rich and interesting article. I have come across different categorizations of reasoning, but never in this form. Her research, especially the focus on antinomous reasoning, reminded me of Aristotle's Square of Opposition. She is drawing from a strong tradition. The implications for teaching and learning, though, are harder for me to identify--I'll need to mull the move from theory to practice over a bit. And the analogy of a drafting compass is fantastic. I'd never heard of it. It's hard to imagine a colder, more sterile image. No wonder his lover left!
You might be interested in Patricia Alexander's work in the field of reading on relational reasoning as a substrate of textuality, including analogical reasoning. One of her students won the International Literacy Association's prize for best dissertation based on this theoretical model in 2018, if memory serves. Analogical reasoning is an important resource for human comprehension of text (along with Alexander's other types--anomalous, antithetical, and I can't recall thel exact word she uses but it amounts to paradoxical oh yeah antinomous reasoning. (He twists his arm to pat himself on the back for recalling this detail after plenty of time to forget it:) I'm not what I would think of as an expert in her work, bu I have read some of it, and I agreed with the ILA vis a vis the award in 2018. Btw, 16th century poetry is known ass metaphysical, and the analogies are tortuous--e.g., John Donne's famous drafting compass as an analogy for parted lovers. Nick has a special focus on a special type of poetry. I'm with you: How could we ever measure a poem? Poems are more like dreams than blueprints, eh? Not a great analogy but serviceable maybe. https://www.nature.com/articles/npjscilearn20164
It's interesting that our of the box analogies prove a difficulty where common analogies don't. I wonder if this has to do with the Catholic tendency of analogy, the movement of analogical reasoning towards a language of universal oneness, such as that found in poetic language. Do you think that the success of a poem will eventually be measurable through AI?
Hello Nick. What a great question! I don't know whether the success of a poem can be measured, let alone by AI:) Your response brought to mind an article that frames poetry as an exploratory, deliberate writing process--the antithesis of GenAI output. I'd be curious to hear how you or other writers/poets think about this problem.
https://www.theatlantic.com/books/archive/2025/08/what-mit-students-are-learning-poetry/683856/
I can only speak for myself, but I study sixteenth-century literature, and most of the poetry that I read is very aware of its artificiality. Admittedly, I'm a bit suspicious of the collaborative ethos of the article. Even musicians or actors, both participating in highly collaborative art forms, get "in the zone." The author's claim that "the creative act brings us together and alters our thinking" doesn't mention creators first withdrawing from the world they want to recreate into one of representation. In my experience, it is almost impossible for me to think or write unless in solitude, if not physical then no longer attentive to the physical world. Withdrawal is where I imagine out-of-the-box analogies originate, and it makes me wonder if there is a way to use AI to isolate the out-of-the-box analogies from the common ones.
This is a very perceptive response to the article. Your observation about the writing process is interesting. Creativity as both outward-facing but also a deeply personal self-exploration is a topic that is often neglected in these discussions. Thanks for that insight, Nick!