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Analogy: (faulty) When you see
that someone is saying something is LIKE something else, than
you're probably dealing with an analogy. Now that you've determined
that, your next job is to decide whether or not the analogy
is relevant in the ways that it is claimed to be. |
- In an analogy, two objects (or events), A and B are shown to
be similar. Then it is argued that since A has property P, so
also B must have property P. An analogy fails when the two objects,
A and B, are different in a way which affects whether they both
have property P.
- (i) Employees are like nails. Just as nails must be hit in
the head in order to make them work, so must employees.
- (ii) Government
is like business, so just as business must be sensitive primarily
to the bottom line, so also must government. (But the objectives
of government and business are completely different, so probably
they will have to meet different criteria.)
Identify the two objects or events being compared and the property
which both are said to possess. Show that the two are not relevantly
similar.
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