more from this thinker | more from this text
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.
Gist of Idea
All reasoning concerning matters of fact is based on analogy (with similar results of similar causes)
Source
David Hume (Enquiry Conc Human Understanding [1748], §82)
Book Ref
Hume,David: 'Enquiries Conc. Human Understanding, Morals', ed/tr. Selby-Bigge/Nidditch [OUP 1975], p.104
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.
| 15770 | Some things cannot be defined, and only an analogy can be given [Aristotle] |
| 4636 | All reasoning concerning matters of fact is based on analogy (with similar results of similar causes) [Hume] |
| 6961 | An analogy begins to break down as soon as the two cases differ [Hume] |
| 5555 | Philosophical examples rarely fit rules properly, and lead to inflexibility [Kant] |
| 5331 | You can't infer that because you have a hidden birth-mark, everybody else does [Ayer] |
| 6574 | Legal reasoning is analogical, not deductive [Fogelin] |
| 7465 | Babylonian thinking used analogy, rather than deduction or induction [Watson] |
| 16307 | Don't trust analogies; they are no more than a guideline [Halbach] |