فهرست نشریات علمی دسترسی آزاد ایران

This study investigates the epistemological role of analogy (tamthil) and analogical reasoning as a shared cognitive strategy in science and religion, emphasizing its foundational function in the development of theories and conceptual models. Grounded in the framework of critical realism, the study challenges the notion that scientific knowledge and religious understanding arise solely from empirical observation or abstract theorization. Instead, it demonstrates that both domains rely on imaginative reasoning and analogical structures to interpret experience and generate meaning. In science, analogical models—such as Bohr’s atomic model and wave-particle duality—serve as heuristic tools that extend theoretical domains and connect unobservable entities to empirical data. In religion, symbolic models derived from sacred narratives—such as analogical interpretations of divine attributes or jurisprudential qiyas—enrich spiritual experience and doctrinal formulation. Classical Islamic thought systematically employed analogy—in logic as tamthil, in jurisprudence as qiyas, and in theology and religious discourse—despite ongoing debates over its epistemic validity. The findings showed that analogy functions as a mediating structure between experience and conceptual insight in both scientific and religious contexts. It reveals that scientific observation is theory-laden, while religious understanding is belief-laden—yet both are shaped by imaginative analogical modeling. Through comparative analysis, the study reaffirms the centrality of analogical imagination in epistemology and argues that analogy is not merely rhetorical but a generative method for interdisciplinary knowledge production. Ultimately, the paper concludes that analogy remains a powerful and productive tool for explaining complex ideas and fostering dialogue between scientific and religious worldviews.