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2 ideas
4636 | 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. |
6961 | 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) |