What is compare

Comparing is paying attention to two or more objects to discover their relationships or consider their differences or similarities.

The difference is the quality or accident by which one thing is distinguished from another, or the variety between things of the same species.

Equivalence is the equality in the value, estimation, power or efficacy of two or more things or people.

Equality is the conformity of something to something else in nature, form, quality, or quantity, or the correspondence and proportion that results from many parts that uniformly make up a whole.

What can be compared

Before comparing, it is necessary to consider “What can we compare” or rather, “What areas of comparison can exist?”. With the intention of ordering and structuring all the fields and fields of knowledge, we have defined some fields and a list in which they are developed.

There are three main areas: nature, the human being and what the human being does. These areas and the list in which they are developed determine from which points of view we can describe an object and also from which points of view we can compare different objects with each other.

Within what the human being does, we highlight society and culture. One of the fundamental comparisons is the comparison between different territories with different cultures. Some comparisons, the cultural ones, which are closely related to the comparison relative to climate or history.

What can we compare with?

With other elements of the same "taxonomic level" in context

For example, the tomato is an element of nature and I can compare it with other fruits, with other unprocessed edible products, etc.

With similar or close elements that can generate confusion between them

For example, the tomato can be compared to other red fruits, such as plum or red pepper. This comparison helps us to better distinguish it.

With different terms, expressions or concepts of similar or opposite meaning

Different uses can be compared. For example: "turning into a tomato" means turning red due to shame, not "turning into a tomato." Also look for words with similar or opposite meaning, such as tomato.

Comparisons in relation to context:

La nature: The tomato in nature as a living being, as a plant ...
El human: The tomato in relation to the human being: what does it represent for him, what meanings does it have ...
What the human being does: What does the human being do with the tomato? He plants it, cooks it, eats it ...
The field scientist / academic discipline: The tomato for a biologist is not the same as the tomato for an agronomist or for a chemist.
El use in the profession: A cook uses the tomato to prepare dishes, a farmer grows the tomato, a transporter transports the tomato from one place to another, a fruit vendor sells the tomato to the general public, and for a nutritionist the tomato has nutritional value and certain vitamins

According to popular / common meaning of a certain social group. For example, in the Valencian town of Buñol the tomato is a symbol of its main festival, the tomatina.

In relation to human identity
In relation to the sensation-perception
Through our emotions
Through our knowledge

Types of comparative methods

The types of comparative methods can be summarized through the first two of the five inductive methods of the philosopher John Stuart Mill: the concordance method, which consists of the study focused on the characteristics that coincide, and the difference method, which consists of the study focused on the characteristics that differ.

In parallel to this distinction between agreement and difference, it is also possible to distinguish between the so-called design of the most similar systems, which consists of comparing cases that are as similar to each other as possible, and the design of the most different systems, which consists of comparing cases as much as possible. different from each other.

The combination of the concordance method, the difference method, the design of the most similar systems and the design of the most different systems result in four main types of comparative methods:

Study the similarities in cases similar to each other.
Study the similarities in different cases.
Study the differences in cases similar to each other.
Study the differences in different cases from each other.

For example: to identify the drug that cures a disease, the following can be studied:

Which drugs match in several similar treatments to each other.
Which drugs coincide in several different treatments with each other.
Which medications are different in various treatments similar to each other.
Which drugs are different in several different treatments from each other.

CONNECTIONS BETWEEN METHODS