An analogy proposes that two concepts which are similar (A and B) have a common relationship to some property. A has property X, therefore B must also have property X. In a false analogy, the objects may have some similarities, but they do not both have property X. That way, both objects may have the same color, but this does not mean that they have the same size. Even if bananas and the sun appear yellow, one could not conclude that they are the same size. One who makes an invalid analogy or comparison is often said to be "comparing apples and oranges".
The following are examples of false analogies:
Lord Berners
Lord Berners, whose full name was Gerald Hugh Tyrwhitt-Wilson, 14th Baron Berners, (born Apley Hall, Shropshire, 18 September 1883; died Faringdon House, Berkshire, 19 April 1950), was a British composer of classical music, novelist and painter. He is usually called Lord Berners. He was an amateur composer who is remembered for his strange, eccentric behaviour.
Berners was born in Apley Hall, Bridgnorth, England. The Berners family were related to King Edward III of England. His father was a naval officer who was not often at home. He was looked after by his mother and grandmother who was very religious and very strict. Berners was very interested in lots of things, especially music, but his mother did nothing to help him.
At first he went to boarding school in Cheam. Then he went to Eton. He taught himself to compose. He became a diplomat and travelled to Rome and Constantinople. In 1919, when his uncle died, he became 14th Baron Berners and 5th Baronet. He had already composed some music which had been published under the name Gerald Tyrwhitt.
Berners lived an eccentric life. He lived in Berkshire but also had houses in London and Rome. He had plenty of money, so that he did not have to work. He had many friends, including the composers Stravinsky, Lambert and William Walton who dedicated his "Belshazzar’s Feast" to him.
Berners’s music is full of Romantic feeling, irony and parody. He wrote a lot for the theatre. He composed "The Triumph of Neptune" in 1926 for Diaghilev’s Ballets Russes. His music could often be described as light music.
Berners started his strange behaviour when he was quite small. He had heard that a dog could be taught to swim by throwing it into water, so he decided to teach his dog to fly by throwing it out of the window. The dog was not hurt, but Berners was given a beating.
He was often naughty, making silly traps for people. He was sent to boarding school in Cheam when he was nine. There he had a gay relationship with an older boy. He was then sent to Eton College. Berners said that he learned nothing there.
Later, when he was grown up, he painted pigeons at his house and once he even had a giraffe as a pet so that he could have tea with it. He travelled in a Rolls-Royce and kept a clavichord under the front seat.
He died in 1950 at Faringdon House, leaving his estate to his partner Robert ('Mad Boy') Heber Percy, who lived with him at Faringdon.
His epitaph on his gravestone reads:
Ang Lee
Ang Lee (born 23 October 1954) is a Taiwanese movie director. He has directed movies like "Eat Drink Man Woman", "Sense and Sensibility", "Crouching Tiger, Hidden Dragon", "Hulk" and "Brokeback Mountain". He has won Academy Awards (Oscars) for "Brokeback Mountain" and 'Life of Pi'.
Ang Lee was born in 1954 in a town called Chaozhou, Pingtung in Taiwan. He went to the National Tainan First Senior High School where his father was the principal, and then to the National Arts School. He graduated in 1975. In 1979, he went to the United States and studied theater at the University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign. He got his Master's degree at New York University, and he worked there with another famous director called Spike Lee.
Gustav Klimt
Gustav Klimt (14 July 1862 – 6 February 1918) was an Austrian Symbolist painter. He was one of the most prominent members of the Vienna Secession movement. His major works include paintings, murals, sketches, and other art objects. Many of them are on display in the Vienna Secession gallery. Klimt's primary subject was the female body, and his works are marked by a frank eroticism — nowhere is this more apparent than in his numerous drawings in pencil (see "Mulher sentada", below).
Klimt died of influenza in Vienna in 1918.
Spike Lee
Spike Lee (born March 20, 1957) is an American movie director, producer, screenwriter, and actor. He also teaches movie at New York University and Columbia University. Lee has acted in many of his own movies.
Lee was born Shelton Jackson Lee in 1957 in Atlanta, Georgia. His mother was a teacher, and his father was a jazz musician. When Lee was very young, the family moved to live in Brooklyn, New York City. His mother gave him the nickname "Spike".
The first movie Lee directed was "She's Gotta Have It". Lee directed the two music videos for Michael Jackson's single "They Don't Care About Us". In 2002 Lee won the Special Award at the BAFTAs.
Cuba Gooding, Jr.
Cuba Gooding, Jr. (born January 2, 1968) is an American actor who was born in New York City. He won an Academy Award for his performance in "Jerry Maguire".
In 2016, he portrayed O.J. Simpson in the FX drama series "", and co-starred in the sixth season of the FX anthology series "American Horror Story", subtitled "".
His father is singer Cuba Gooding, Sr. The family moved to Los Angeles in 1972. Gooding has been a born-again Christian since he was 13.
Swift Current, Saskatchewan
Swift Current is a city in Saskatchewan. It is on the Trans Canada Highway 170 kilometers (107 mi) east of Moose Jaw. 14,946 people live there.
Richard Feynman
Richard Feynman (11 May 1918 – 15 February 1988) was an American physicist of Jewish descent. He was born in Far Rockaway, Queens, New York City. He was part of the Manhattan Project team that made the atomic bomb. Feynman won the Nobel Prize in Physics 1965. He was one of the first people to study quantum physics. Feynman added significantly to a branch of science called quantum electrodynamics and invented the Feynman diagram. He died of liposarcoma in Los Angeles, California.
His sister Joan Feynman (born 1927) is a retired astrophysicist.
Feynman wrote some best-selling autobiographies, and his lecture notes became popular with physics students and qualified professionals.
Louis XVIII
Louis XVIII (1755– 1824), was King of France from April 1814 to March 1815 and again from July 1815 to September 1824.
He became king with the Bourbon Restoration of the monarchy after the overthrow of Napoleon I. He ruled a constitutional monarchy, meaning he was not the main leader of his government. However, unlike some constitutional monarchs, he did have some influence in politics.
Born in Versailles, he was the brother of Louis XVI of France and in early life was known as the Comte de Provence. He remained in Paris after the French Revolution began in 1789 but escaped to Belgium two years later. After Louis XVI's execution in 1793 and the death of Louis XVI's son in 1795, he called himself Louis XVIII. He lived as an exile in various European countries until he became king after Napoleon's first abdication in 1814. On Napoleon's return to power in 1815, however, Louis again fled to Belgium; later the same year he was restored to the throne after Napoleon's final defeat at Waterloo. He remained on the throne until his death in 1824.
Louis XVII
Louis XVII of France (Louis Charles; 27 March 1785 - 8 June 1795) was the King of France and Navarre from 1793 to 1795. He never actually ruled. He is also known as Louis Charles, Duke of Normandy and Fils de France (son of France).
Louis Charles of France was born at the Palace of Versailles. He was the second son and the third child of King Louis XVI and Marie Antoinette of France. He became Dauphin of France after the death of his elder brother Louis Joseph in 1789.