Chapter 7 Question 3

I chose to focus on Evaluating Arguments Based on an Analogy from page 216 – 218 in Chapter 7. I picked this particular topic because I feel that the steps that are provided in the book are a great way to check on any type of argument that we might be analyzing. Followed are the steps suggested in the book.

Identify what is being compared, the book suggests that you make a summary of the items or ideas being compared.

List the similarities, a possible beneficial next stop would be to make a list of what is similar between the two items that are being compared.

Next dissimilarities, list the things about the two ideas or items that are not similar.

The next step is to compare those two lists.

As with any great critical thinker, we need to think ahead and see what counter analogies can occur.

Lastly, and naturally, we conclude whether or not the original analogy is supportive of the conclusion we were trying to confirm.