Judging Analogies

Judging Analogies-

We learned throughout chapter 12 about the different types of reasoning and reasoning by analogy. But, judging analogies is a useful topic as well. An anaology needs to be very clear and well stated, but if it is not then one should examine the similarities to find the general rule that will apply to both sides of the anaology. After you find the similarities, one should try and find the differences to see if the general principle might not apply to one side.

 Under judging analogies, there is a term called fallacy of composition.  The fallacy of composition is to argue that is what is true of one individual person is therefore true of a whole group. Or what is true of a group, is then true of an individual.

There are also seven main steps to evaluate an analogy.

First, one must ask is it an argument and what is the conclusion? Then one should ask what is the comparison? For the third step, one should ask what are the premises and is it both sides or only one side of the comparison? Then ask what are the similarities? For the fifth step, one should focus on if they can state the similarities as premises and find a general principle that covers the two sides? The sixth step is to question whether or not the general principle applies to both sides and if the differences matter. Lastly, one needs to figure out whether or not the argument is strong or valid.