Is it correct for 'AS' used here? Shouldn't it be replaced with 'like'?
John Dewey has said in all seriousness that the part played by custom in shaping the behavior of the individual as against any way in which he can affect traditional custom, is AS the proportion of the total vocabulary of his mother tongue against those words of his own baby talk that are taken up into the language of his family.
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Are 'as' and 'like' both correct?
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Answers · 5
0
Use of "like" as in this context rose fairly recently.
Since Dewey was born in 1859, "like" was probably very rarely used in this way in his time.
Here's a usage note about "like" being used like "as" or "as though" from CollinsDictionary.com.
The use of like to mean "such as" was formerly thought to be undesirable in formal writing, but has now become acceptable. It was also thought that "as" rather than "like" should be used to mean "in the same way that", but now both "as" and "like" are acceptable: "they hunt and catch fish as/like their ancestors used to". The use of "look like" and "seem like" before a clause, although very common, is thought by many people to be incorrect or non-standard: "it looks as though he won't come" (not "it looks like he won't come")
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"Like" would be the more natural choice. "As" is also correct but more formal/literary.
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