Comparisons - of types/kinds.

We compare 2 things which are kinds/types of the same thing (and thus mostly having the same basic structure or functionality) for a meaningful comparison. Theoretically one can compare (i.e. state and similarities and the differences) between any two entities/concepts (say, earth and wrist-watch). Why do we compare? To find out which of the two is better or more useful or the like. We compare corresponding properties which are the sub-entities of the entities being compared. There are two kinds of these properties - entity-centric and entity-independent. For example, suppose you are choosing between 2 shirts in a shop. Comparing the collars is comparing a shirt-centrick property (since a collar has no identity/existence without a shirt). But comparing the colors of the shirts is shirt-independent. Somehow, comparison has more the connotation of difference than similarity. First of all we compare only such two things which at the outset are seen to be different from each other - different samples, different types/kinds/examples etc. However, the bottomline is that mostly comparison is between entities which are types of some one thing and hence they first have some similarity between them, to begin with Also a lot of properties are measurable - so we get the words ‘more’ or ‘less’ while comparing. The general mental algorithm for spotting differences seems quite simple. Visualize A in various scenarios of action or existence (basically mental videos or photos), pick something (property) that occurs as peculiar to A in that photo or video, look for the corresponding property in B and check the difference. Suppose you are asked to compare Sachin Tendulkar and Virat Kohli or Sachin Tendulkar and Brain Lara. One thing is that while checking for differences, the commonsense features, in detail, one by one, like eyes, forehead, nose, teeth etc. and other aspects of other properties (of the photos or videos) don't feature in the mind’s scan - only the peculiar characteristic features do; whereas the detailed, step by step commonsense features feature while looking for similarities. So the similarity-spotting algorithm works differently as compared to the difference-spotting algorithm. What could be the reason? One point is that differences are easier to spot than similarities since they are more abundant generally speaking, than similarities. So the chance during a broad, peculiar-features-scan, of finding differences, is as it is quite high. Similarities being much fewer, one has to look via a more detailed scan. Another reason, more obvious, is that commonsense-wise the 2 entities are more prone to be the same than different. So the mind ignores such features during a difference-check. (Just for completeness and clarity, note that the remaining part of the algorithm for similarities is - look in detail and pick up a property in A, check for corresponding property in B, check if similar). Why does comparison boil down to only similarities and differences? Why can two things be only similar to or different from each other? Well, of course 2 things can be similar in some respects and different in some. But that effectively makes them different, overall. Similarity can happen only in completeness; but for two things to be different, only a small difference can suffice - they don't need to be entirely different from each other i.e. in every sense. Similarity-and-difference does not exhaust comparison. There can be stronger results of comparison like, say, A is the origin of B or A is the cause of B or whatever, which are bigger truths than just saying that A is different form B in so and so senses. For example, suppose one asks you to compare a sportsman X with a sportsman Y of the past who was also the coach of X, then this truth (Y being the “creator” of X) also stands in comparative analysis in addition to their similarities and differences. But in most cases, comparison is about similarities and differences. The “inspiration” for comparison might be either - it could be a similarity-inspired comparison (like, say, a baby and a flower bud) or a difference-inspired comparison (like, say, digital and analog computers). (The former is useful and occurs when we are confused between two tempting choices). In other words, the former is when two things are more the same than different, and the latter when they are more different than the same. In spotting differences while comparing, a special case might arise when the 2 corresponding properties are not just different but stark opposites of each other. It is one thing to say that in A property X is ‘up’ and in B the property X is ‘to the right’, and quite another to say that in A it is ‘up’ and in B it is ‘down’.