In Defense of Analogical Reasoning

Authors

  • Steven Gamboa

DOI:

https://doi.org/10.22329/il.v28i3.595

Keywords:

analogy, animal studies, scientific models, skepticism about analogical reasoning

Abstract

I offer a defense of ana-logical accounts of scientific models by meeting certain logical objections to the legitimacy of analogical reasoning. I examine an argument by Joseph Agassi that purports to show that all putative cases of analogical inference succumb to the following dilemma: either (1) the reasoning remains hopelessly vague and thus establishes no conclusion, or (2) can be analyzed into a logically preferable non-analogical form. In rebuttal, I offer a class of scientific models for which (a) there is no satisfactory non-analogical analysis, and (b) we can gain sufficient clarity for the legitimacy of the inference to be assessed. This result constitutes an existence proof for a class of analogical models that escape Agassi’s dilemma.

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Published

2008-09-02

Issue

Vol. 28 No. 3 (2008)

Section

Articles

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