Abstract
The purpose of this paper is to analyze the structure and the defeasibility conditions of argument from analogy, addressing the issues of determining the nature of the comparison underlying the analogy and the types of inferences justifying the conclusion. In the dialectical tradition, different forms of similarity were distinguished and related to the possible inferences that can be drawn from them. The kinds of similarity can be divided into four categories, depending on whether they represent fundamental semantic features of the terms of the comparison (essential similarities) or non-semantic ones, indicating possible characteristics of the referents (accidental similarities). Such distinct types of similarity characterize different kinds of analogical arguments, all based on a similar general structure, in which a common genus (or rather a generic feature) is abstracted. Depending on the nature of the abstracted common feature, different rules of inference will apply, guaranteeing the attribution of the analogical predicate to the genus and to the primary subject. This analysis of similarity and the relationship thereof with the rules of inference allows a deeper investigation of the defeasibility conditions.
Similar content being viewed by others
Notes
This is the Latin term that corresponds to topos in the Greek.
In Latin: “quae generi adsunt speciei adsunt.”
References
Abaelardus, P. 1970. In Dialectica, ed. L. M. de Rijk. Assen: Van Gorcum.
Aristotle, 1991a. Generation of Animals. In The complete works of Aristotle, vol. I, ed. J. Barnes. Princeton: Princeton University Press.
Aristotle, 1991b. Metaphysics. In The complete works of Aristotle, vol. II, ed. J. Barnes. Princeton: Princeton University Press.
Aristotle, 1991c. Posterior analytics. In The complete works of Aristotle, vol. I, ed. J. Barnes. Princeton: Princeton University Press.
Aristotle, 1991d. Prior Analytics. In The complete works of Aristotle, vol. I, ed. J. Barnes. Princeton: Princeton University Press.
Aristotle, 1991e. Rhetoric. In The complete works of Aristotle, vol. I, ed. J. Barnes. Princeton: Princeton University Press.
Aristotle, 1991f. Topics. In The complete works of Aristotle, vol. I, ed. J. Barnes. Princeton: Princeton University Press.
Ashley, K. 2006. Case-based reasoning. In Information technology and lawyers, ed. A.R. Lodder, and A. Oskamp, 26–60. Amsterdam: Springer.
Ashley, K., and E. Rissland. 2003. Law, learning and representation. Artificial Intelligence 150(1): 17–58.
Bartha, P. 2010. By parallel reasoning: The construction and evaluation of analogical arguments. Oxford: Oxford University Press.
Bird, O. 1960. The formalizing of the topics in mediaeval logic. Notre Dame Journal of Formal Logic 1(4): 138–149.
Bird, O. 1962. The tradition of the logical topics: Aristotle to Ockham. Journal of the History of Ideas 23(3): 307–323.
Brown, W.R. 1989. Two traditions of analogy. Informal Logic 11(3): 161–172.
Buridanus, J. 2001. In Summulae de Dialectica: An annotated translation, with a philosophical introduction by Gyula Klima, ed. G. Klima, New Haven & Londo: Yale University Press.
Christensen, J. 1988. The formal character of koinoi topoi in Aristotle’s rhetoric and dialectic. Illustrated by the list in Rhetorica II, 23. Cahiers de L’institut Du Moyen Âge Grec et Latin 57: 3–10.
Cicero, M.T. 1988. In De Inventione, ed. C. D. Yonge (The Oratio). London: George Bell & Sons.
Copi, I., and K. Burgess-Jackson. 1992. Informal logic. New York: Macmillan Publishing Company.
Copi, I., and C. Cohen. 2005. Introduction to logic, 12th ed. Upper Saddle River: Prentice-Hal.
Cummings, L. 2015. Reasoning and public health: New ways of coping with uncertainty. Cham: Springer.
Darden, L. 1982. Artificial intelligence and philosophy of science: Reasoning by analogy in theory construction. PSA: Proceedings of the biennial meeting of the Philosophy of Science Association, 147–165. Chicago: University of Chicago Press.
Davies, T.R. 1988. Determination, uniformity, and relevance: Normative criteria for generalization and reasoning by analogy. In ed. D. Helman. Dordrecht: Springer.
de V. Cajetanus, T. 1934. De Nominum analogia. Rome: Institutum Angelicum.
de Pater, W. 1965. Les Topiques d’Aristote et la dialectique platonicienne. La méthodologie de la définition. Fribourg: Éditions St. Paul.
Deslauriers, M. 2007. Aristotle on definition. Leiden and Boston: Brill.
Drehe, I. 2011. The Aristotelian dialectical topos. Argumentum 9(2): 129–139.
Genesereth, M.R. 1980. Metaphors and models. Proceedings of the National Conference on Artificial Intelligence, 208–211. Stanford: Morgan-Kaufmann.
Gentner, D. 1980. The structure of analogical models in science. Cambridge: Bolt Beranek and Newman.
Glucksberg, S., and B. Keysar. 1990. Understanding metaphorical comparisons: Beyond similarity. Psychological Review, 97(1): 3–18. http://doi.org/10.1037/0033-295X.97.1.3.
Green-Pedersen, N.J. 1984. The tradition of the topics in the middle ages: The commentaries on Aristotle’s and Boethius’ topics. Munich: Philosophia.
Green-Pedersen, N.J. 1987. The topics in medieval logic. Argumentation 1(4): 407–417.
Guarini, M., A. Butchart, P. Simard Smith, and A. Moldovan. 2009. Resources for research on analogy: A multi-disciplinary guide. Informal Logic 29(2): 84–197.
Hesse, M. 1965. Aristotle’s logic of analogy. The Philosophical Quarterly 328–340.
Hesse, M. 1966. Models and analogies in science. Notre Dame: University of Notre Dame Press.
Hesse, M. 1988. Theories, family resemblances and analogy. In Analogical reasoning, ed. D. Helman, 317–340. Dordrecht: Springer.
Hispanus, P. 1990. In Peter of Spain: Language in Dispute. An English translation of Peter of Spain’s ‘Tractatus’ called afterwards SUMMULAE LOGICALES, based on the critical edition by LM de Rijk, ed. F. Dinneen, Vol. 39. Amsterdam: John Benjamins Publishing.
Juthe, A. 2005. Argument by analogy. Argumentation, 19(1): 1–27. http://doi.org/10.1007/s10503-005-2314-9.
Kakuta, T., M. Haraguchi, and Y. Okubo. 1997. A goal-dependent abstraction for legal reasoning by analogy. Artificial Intelligence and Law 5(1–2): 97–118.
Kienpointner, M. 1997. On the art of finding arguments: What ancient and modern masters of invention have to tell us about the “ars inveniendi”. Argumentation 11: 225–236.
Kienpointner, M. 2001. Modern revivals of Aristotle’s and Cicero’s topics: Toulmin, Perelman Anscombre/Ducrot. Journal of Latin Linguistics 7(1): 17–34.
Levin, S.R. 1982. Aristotle’s theory of metaphor. Philosophy and Rhetoric, 24–46.
Lloyd, A. 1962. Genus, species and ordered series in Aristotle. Phronesis, 67–90.
Lloyd, G.E.R. 1966. Polarity and analogy: Two types of argumentation in early Greek thought. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press.
Macagno, F. 2014. Analogy and redefinition. In Systematic approaches to agument by analogy, ed. H. Ribeiro, 73–89. Cham: Springer International Publishing.
Macagno, F., and G. Damele. 2013. The dialogical force of implicit premises: Presumptions in enthymemes. Informal Logic, 33(3): 361–389. http://windsor.scholarsportal.info/ojs/leddy/index.php/informal_logic/article/view/3679/3138.
Macagno, F., and D. Walton. 2006. Argumentative reasoning patterns. Proceedings of 6th CMNA (Computational Models of Natural Argument) Workshop, ECAI-European Conference on Artificial Intelligence, 48–51. Trento: University of Trento.
Macagno, F., and D. Walton. 2009. Argument from analogy in law, the classical tradition, and recent theories. Philosophy and Rhetoric, 42(2), 154–182. http://doi.org/10.1353/par.0.0034.
Macagno, F., and D. Walton. 2014. Emotive language in argumentation. New York: Cambridge University Press.
Macagno, F., D. Walton, and C. Tindale. 2014. Analogical reasoning and semantic rules of inference. Revue Internationale de Philosophie 270(4): 419–432.
Malink, M. 2013. Aristotle’s modal syllogistic. Cambridge: Harvard University Press.
Meheus, J. 2000. Analogical reasoning in creative problem solving processes: Logico-philosophical perspectives. In Metaphor and analogy in the sciences, ed. F. Hallyn, 17–34. Dordrecht: Kluwer.
Quintilianus, M.F. 1996. In Institutio oratoria, ed. H.E. Butler. Cambridge: Harvard University Press.
Ribeiro, H. (ed.). 2014. Systematic approaches to argument by analogy, vol. 25. Cham: Springer.
Rigotti, E. 2007. Relevance of context-bound loci to topical potential in the argumentation stage. Argumentation, 20(4): 519–540. http://doi.org/10.1007/s10503-007-9034-2.
Ross, J.F. 1981. Portraying analogy. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press.
Rubinelli, S. 2009. Ars topica: The classical technique of constructing arguments from Aristotle to Cicero, vol. 15. Amsterdam: Springer.
Russell, S. 1988. Analogy by similarity. In Analogical reasoning, ed. D. Helman, 251–269. Dordrecht: Springer.
Shelley, C. 2003. Multiple analogies in science and philosophy, vol. 11. Amsterdam-Philadelphia: John Benjamins Publishing.
Slomkowski, P. 1997. Aristotele’s topics. Leiden: Brill.
Stump, E. 1982. Topics: Their development and absorption into consequences. In Cambridge history of later medieval philosophy, ed. N. Kretzmann, A. Kenny, and J. Pinborg, 273–299. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press.
Stump, E. 1989. Dialectic and its place in the development of Medieval logic. Ithaca and London: Cornell University Press.
Stump, E. 2004. Boethius’s “De topicis differentiis”. Ithaca and London: Cornell University Press.
Toulmin, S. 1958. The uses of argument. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press.
Waller, B.N. 2001. Classifying and analyzing analogies. Informal Logic 21(3): 199–218.
Walton, D. 2010. Similarity, precedent and argument from analogy. Artificial Intelligence and Law, 18(3), 217–246. http://doi.org/10.1007/s10506-010-9102-z.
Walton, D. 2014. Argumentation schemes for argument from analogy. In Systematic approaches to argument by analogy, ed. H. Ribeiro, 23–40. Amsterdam: Springer.
Walton, D., and F. Macagno. 2009. Classification and ambiguity: The role of definition in a conceptual system. Studies in Logic, Grammar and Rhetoric 16(29): 245–264.
Walton, D., C. Reed, and F. Macagno. 2008. Argumentation schemes. New York: Cambridge University Press.
Weinreb, L. 2005. Legal reason: The use of analogy in legal argument. New York: Cambridge University Press.
Author information
Authors and Affiliations
Corresponding author
Rights and permissions
About this article
Cite this article
Macagno, F., Walton, D. & Tindale, C. Analogical Arguments: Inferential Structures and Defeasibility Conditions. Argumentation 31, 221–243 (2017). https://doi.org/10.1007/s10503-016-9406-6
Published:
Issue Date:
DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/s10503-016-9406-6