The analogy adds force because the parallel is vivid and ties the abstract claim to things that everyone has experienced with the senses. The analogy operates on the listener’s intuitions; that is, it plays to the organs of perception rather than reason. The analogy also lets insults be heaped on the subject indirectly. Socrates uses harsh words when he talks about cosmetics: “knavish, false, ignoble, illiberal.” That’s safe enough; there are no cosmeticians around to complain. But once the repulsive character of cosmetics is established, those words can be transferred to rhetoric without too
...more
