Combining Philosophers

Ideas for Buddhaghosa, David Hume and Volker Halbach

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3 ideas

2. Reason / E. Argument / 3. Analogy
Don't trust analogies; they are no more than a guideline [Halbach]
     Full Idea: Arguments from analogy are to be distrusted: at best they can serve as heuristics.
     From: Volker Halbach (Axiomatic Theories of Truth [2011], 4)
An analogy begins to break down as soon as the two cases differ [Hume]
     Full Idea: But wherever you depart, in the least, from the similarity of the cases, you diminish proportionably the evidence; and may at last bring it to a very weak analogy.
     From: David Hume (Dialogues Concerning Natural Religion [1751], Part 2)
All reasoning concerning matters of fact is based on analogy (with similar results of similar causes) [Hume]
     Full Idea: All our reasonings concerning matters of fact are founded on a species of analogy, which leads us to expect from any cause the same events, which we have observed to result from similar causes.
     From: David Hume (Enquiry Conc Human Understanding [1748], §82)
     A reaction: Interesting. Analogy notoriously becomes problematical when you have only one case (or a few) to go on, as when inferring other minds, or God's existence from natural design.