Figures of Analogy: Paradigm, Metaphor, Symptom

Abstract

This article analyzes three different forms of analogical reasoning based on the insights provided in Enzo Melandri’s reflections. First, I examine the relationship between logic and rhetoric, referencing Melandri’s account of the paradigm as a form of analogical reasoning. Next, I address the issue of metaphor, drawing on Melandri’s interpretation of Aristotle, and explore the relationship between analogy and metaphor by referencing the works of I. A. Richards and Max Black. Finally, I focus on the attempt to revise semiotics in symptomatic terms, interpreting the symptom as a manifestation of analogical reasoning. Melandri draws on classical sources, particularly Aristotle, to derive consequences that challenge traditional interpretations, thereby tracing an ‘analogical’ soul within the very philosophical lógos. In doing so, a particular stance of thought begins to emerge, which Melandri defines as ‘archaeological’, and which seeks to regress beyond the division between what is logical and what is illogical.