Asymmetric comparisons

From The Consolation of Philosophy by by Ancius Boethius. Page 44.

Compare the pause of a single moment to ten thousand years: Since each of them is a limited duration, even though it is very small the one does nevertheless have a certain ratio to the other. But even this number of years, or any multiple of it, cannot even be set next to an extent of time that has no end. For while there would be some comparison among themselves one to the other for finite terms, there could never be any comparison of the finite to the infinite.

An interesting observation. This is an aspect of category errors, as well as the logical fallacies of division and composition.

In the article in which I saw this referenced, they had an intriguing description which is slightly different still, and usefully different. The author referred to Boethius's point as an asymmetric comparison.

I like that gradation. It captures the condition of hyperbolic comparisons. If some teenager makes the claim that "My parents are like Hitler" you can certainly counter that that is a category error, confusing a modicum of discipline with arbitrary totalitarian authority. But then some pedant comes along and wants to debate shades of grey and explore where on the continuum normal parent authority evolves into arbitrary totalitarian authority.

You will probably win your point but the clarity and concision of communication is lost.

Instead, to counter that the teenager's claim is an asymmetric comparison is much harder to refute. There will always be pedantic takers but at least they will have to work much harder to handicap your point. And there is a good chance that any effort to counter "asymmetric comparison" probably has a pretty good chance of actually making the point for you.