Article: https://www.nytimes.com/1999/04/18/opinion/war-and-analogy.html
The New York Times opinion article “War and Analogy” discusses how different U.S leaders used different analogies to described the situation in Kosovo in the late 1990’s.
The op-ed also notes that the politicians used the analogies to argue for a particular kind of response by the United States government.
Analogies (and other similar devices) can help produce or share reliable knowledge. They are somewhat indirect, however, and do have a degree of uncertainty. The same could be said for symbolism, metaphors, etc.
An essay November 2020 TOK Essay Prescribed Title #6 RLE could explore some of these devices in two different AOKs and compare / contrast the different degrees of certainty can still result in “reliable knowledge.”