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torekp comments on The Correct Use of Analogy - Less Wrong
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For those interested, Douglas Hofstadter (of the famous Gödel, Escher, Bach) wrote recently a book called Surfaces and Essences: Analogy as the Fuel and Fire of Thinking which develops the thesis that analogy is the core and fuel of thinking, and does it quite brilliantly.
I'm only half-way through the book yet, but so far I liked it very much, the first part on language for example develops somewhat similar ideas, but with a quite different viewpoint, than the "Humans Guide to Words" Sequence on Less Wrong, and both complement each other well.
Similar: Metaphors We Live By by George Lakoff and Mark Johnson. A good antidote to much analytical philosophy, even while oversimplifying many of their targets.
Also by Lakoff, Where Mathematics Comes From as a case study of the way we use analogies (metaphors, rather) in a complex domain. The underlying power of analogical reasoning seems to lie in its ability to map from "far" to "near" domains and thinking styles. Since "near"-style thinking has distinctive properties, this ends up being quite useful.