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Argument

Argument from analogy

Argument from analogy
The original uploader was Magnus Manske at English Wikipedia. Later versions were uploaded by Optimager at en.wikipedia. · Public domain · source

Overview

type of inductive argument, whereby perceived similarities are used as a basis to infer some further similarity that has yet to be observed

Overview adapted from Wikipedia (CC BY-SA 4.0; see the article history for authors).

Possible passages

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  1. An argument from analogy, is an inference that what is true in a certain case is true in a case known to be somewhat similar, but not known to be exactly parallel, that is, to be similar in all the material circumstances. An object has the property B: another object is not known to have that property, but resembles the first in a property A, not known to be connected with B; and the conclusion to which the analogy…

    John Stuart Mill, A System of Logic, Ratiocinative and Inductive

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  2. The meaning intended by these expressions is, that Induction is inferring a proposition from propositions _less general_ than itself, and Ratiocination is inferring a proposition from propositions _equally_ or _more_ general. When, from the observation of a number of individual instances, we ascend to a general proposition, or when, by combining a number of general propositions, we conclude from them another…

    John Stuart Mill, A System of Logic

    States what Argument from analogy is; the author is tied to Argument from analogy in the knowledge graph.

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  3. It is not logically _impossible_ that my life may be one long dream, in which I merely imagine all the objects that I believe to be external to me. If we are to reject this view, we must do so on the basis of an inductive or analogical argument, which cannot give complete certainty. We perceive other people behaving in a manner analogous to that in which we behave, and we assume that they have had similar stimuli…

    Bertrand Russell, Philosophy

    Close in meaning to Argument from analogy; the term itself is not named.

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Related ideas

Place in the tradition

Part of Atheism.

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