PHI 1101 Lecture 10: PHI1101 Lecture 10

• School: University of Ottawa
• Department: Philosophy
• Course: PHI 1101
• Professor: Mark Brown

Document Summary

* an analogy is a comparison of two or more tings that are alike in specific ways. * analogies can be used to argue inductively for a conclusion. * such arguments are analogical inductions or argument by analogy. * because those two (or more) things are similar in several ways, they must be similar. * i1: thing a has properties p1, p2, p3 and p4. * i2: thing b also has has properties p1, p2 and p3. * therefore, thing b likely has property p4. * like all non-deductive reasoning, good arguments from analogies only provide probable support for their conclusions. * the more similarities there are between the things being compared, the more likely the conclusion will be truthful. * the question is whether the comparison is meaningful or useful. * the more relevant the similarities between the things being compared, the more probable the conclusion.