3 ms·
Why can't we compare apples and oranges? They're fruit. They have nutritions. I don't like this metaphor.
by m1117 6y ago
Why can't we compare apples and oranges? They're fruit. They have nutritions. I don't like this metaphor.
- HPsquared 6y agoHow about oranges vs lemons? That way they are superficially similar but one is a lot more palatable than the other. Regular coronavirus = eating an orange. SARS-CoV-2 = eating a lemon...
- jordanbeiber 6y agoWe can, but at the same time it would be different than a comparison of say a granny smith and a gala apple. Oranges share fundamental properties with apples - they are ”fruits” and ”pip” ones at that, and can be compared as such - but there’s a clear distiction and a reason for the grouping of ”apples” and ”oranges”.
- JamesG124 6y agoIt's about comparison of individuals. Only when two individuals belong to the same specifies does it make sense to compare them. For example, "is Fred taller than John?" is much better defined than "is Fred taller than [some porpoise]?" It's certainly possible to compare species themselves, e.g. how does the typical orange differ from the typical apple. But the idea behind the popular saying concerns individual comparison, not species comparison
- ceejayoz 6y ago> Why can't we compare apples and oranges? We can! But, we must do so carefully. "They're both sweet" cannot be used to conclude "they are the same".
- ravenstine 6y agoThe metaphor can apply to some things, but there's no good reason as far as I can tell for us to not compare COVID-19 to influenza. Experts desperately want to be right, so they're going to publish articles like this, which are effectively saying "Hey! Look at my shiny penny!"