PHI332 : The Class : Argument Evaluation : Analogy

Topic 2: Arguments from Analogy

An argument from analogy is a fancy version of a counter-example. Arguments from analogy are frequently used in health care ethics. One reason for this is that, as health care technology develops, we are faced with new situations (cloning, surrogate motherhood, more complex end-of-life decisions, etc.) in which people disagree or simply do not know what is right and wrong. If we can find a good analogy between the new situation and a situation we already agree upon, we can make a reasonable decision about the new case. Your research paper might benefit from the use of an argument from analogy, either when you identify and evaluate another person's use of such an argument, or when you construct your own analogy. Indeed, your entire evaluation of an argument can rest on one carefully drawn argument from analogy, or on the evaluation of the analogy of another.

In this submodule you will learn the three parts of an argument from analogy: first, a display of a parallel argument (called the "analogous argument" or "analog") alongside of a target argument; second, a premise evaluating the analog; third, a conclusion evaluating the target in the same terms. Knowing these three parts will help you identify arguments from analogy. After you have learned to identify arguments from analogy, you will learn to evaluate them

To complete this topic successfully, do as many of the following exercises as you find necessary to acquire the relevant skill. You have acquired the relevant skill when your answers to exercises are reliably either the same as the given answers or are alternative answers you can explain and defend:

Once you have completed this excercise you should:

Go on to Topic 3: Writing an Evaluation of an Article-Length Argument
or
Go back to Argument Evaluation

E-mail George Rudebusch at George.Rudebusch@nau.edu
or call (520) 523-7091

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