Analogies have been used throughout history as a means of explaining the world, and of grasping phenomena that could not otherwise be understood. In this episode of the "Science Social" podcast series, host Stephanie Hood and Postdoctoral Fellow Hannah Erlwein visit the "Islamic Golden Age," a period of cultural, theological, and scientific flourishing where analogies were central to understanding how the world was made and how science and religion connected.

From the art of debating to Newton's shoot for the moon, from Aristotle to Avicenna, from mind-boggling "What Ifs?" to current advances in artificial intelligence, we explore how people are, and always have been, analogical beings.

Learn more about Analogies in Premodern Islamic Theology: http://bit.ly/knowing-the-unobservable

Listen to Hannah Erlwein's Podcast Kalamopod: https://anchor.fm/kalamopod

About Hannah Erlwein: https://www.mpiwg-berlin.mpg.de/users/herlwein

 

This podcast is produced by the Max Planck Institute for the History of Science, www.mpiwg-berlin.mpg.de

Follow us on https://twitter.com/MPIWG

Host: Stephanie Hood

Concept and sound editing by Verena Braun

Theme song by Podington Bear, CC NY-NC 3.0