We are all familiar with the use of analogies. They may be used to provide advice, to suggest alternate ways of understanding a situation or simply to illustrate or make a point. But analogies may also be used to present arguments. Our main focus here will be analogy arguments.
We focussed here upon the overt form of analogy arguments, introducing such concepts as that of target and reference objects and features.
In this section we attempted to probe more deeply into the structure of analogy arguments. In particular we emphasized that we have to consider the degree of positive relevance of the reference features. This is the primary determinant of the strength of the argument. But we noted that some analogy arguments can be more completely evidenced in that better evidence of that positive relevance is provided.
Analogy arguments are frequently used to attempt to refute other arguments. And in some cases we used negative rather than positive ones. That is, we can argue that dissimilarities support the conclusion that an object lacks a certain feature.
Animal models are frequently used as the basis for claims regarding humans. We here present and assess some of these