Reasoning by grounded analogy

Analogical reasoning projects a property taken to hold of something or things (the source) to something else (the target) on the basis of just those similarities premised in the analogy. Standard similarity-based accounts of analogical reasoning face the question: Under what conditions does a collection of similarities sufficiently warrant analogical projection? One answer is: When a thing’s having the premised similarities somehow determines its having the projected property. Standardly, this answer has been interpreted as claiming that a formally defined determination relation exists between the variables of which the determining properties are values and the variable of which the determined property is a value. This paper supplies another answer: Analogical projection is warranted when an item’s having the projected property is grounded in its having the premised similarities. Drawing on the metaphysics of grounding, we propose a model of grounded analogy on which analogical reasoning is valid under metaphysical necessity. Our model thus provides one answer to John Stuart Mill’s question of how analogical reasoning based on limited information about a single source case can provide an indefeasible justification for analogical projection. Once a relation of total grounding is ascertained to hold between some similarities and the projected property, no other properties bear on the projectability of the projected property from the source to the target.

[1]  J. Weitzenfeld.  Valid Reasoning by Analogy , 1984, Philosophy of Science.

[2]  F. Correia,et al.  Metaphysical Grounding: Frontmatter , 2012 .

[3]  Paul Bartha,et al.  By parallel reasoning : the construction and evaluation of analogical arguments , 2010 .

[4]  André Juthe.  Analogical Argument Schemes and Complex Argument Structure , 2015 .

[5]  Selim Berker,et al.  The Unity of Grounding , 2018 .

[6]  Stuart J. Russell,et al.  A Logical Approach to Reasoning by Analogy , 1987, IJCAI.

[7]  Stuart J. Russell,et al.  Analogy by Similarity , 1988 .

[8]  John Woods,et al.  By Parity of Reasoning , 1989 .

[9]  Benjamin Schnieder,et al.  Metaphysical Grounding: Understanding the Structure of Reality , 2012 .

[10]  T. S. Dixon,et al.  What Is the Well-Foundedness of Grounding? , 2016 .

[11]  FABRIZIO MACAGNO,et al.  Analogical Reasoning and Semantic Rules of Inference , 2014, Revue internationale de philosophie.

[12]  Gideon Rosen,et al.  Metaphysical Dependence: Grounding and Reduction , 2009 .

[13]  Douglas Walton,et al.  Analogical Arguments: Inferential Structures and Defeasibility Conditions , 2017 .

[14]  Chris Reed,et al.  Argumentation Schemes , 2008 .

[15]  I. Niiniluoto.  ANALOGY AND SIMILARITY IN SCIENTIFIC REASONING , 1988 .

[16]  Douglas Walton,et al.  Argumentation Schemes for Argument from Analogy , 2014 .

[17]  Marcello Guarini,et al.  A Defence of Non-deductive Reconstructions of Analogical Arguments! , 2004 .

[18]  M. Guarini.  A Defense of Non-deductive Reconstructions of Analogical Arguments (AILACT Essay Competition Winner) , 2004 .

[19]  Todd R. Davies,et al.  Determination, Uniformity, and Relevance: Normative Criteria for Generalization and Reasoning by Analogy , 1988 .

[20]  Analogies Hard and Soft , 1988 .

[21]  Douglas Walton,et al.  Similarity, precedent and argument from analogy , 2010, Artificial Intelligence and Law.

[22]  Fabrizio Macagno.  The logical and pragmatic structure of arguments from analogy , 2017 .

[23]  André Juthe.  Refutation by Parallel Argument , 2009 .

[24]  Alastair Wilson,et al.  Metaphysical Causation: Metaphysical Causation , 2018 .

[25]  Irving M. Copi,et al.  Essentials of Logic , 2004 .

[26]  Giuseppe Del Re,et al.  Models and analogies in science , 2013 .

[27]  André Juthe.  Argument by Analogy , 2005 .

[28]  T. Govier.  Analogies and Missing Premises , 1989 .

[29]  Kelly Trogdon,et al.  Grounding: Necessary or Contingent? , 2013 .

[30]  John W. Schaffer.  On What Grounds What , 2009 .

[31]  David Hitchcock.  Erratum to: On Reasoning and Argument , 2017 .

[32]  P. Hurley.  A concise introduction to logic , 1982 .

[33]  Douglas Walton,et al.  Argumentation Schemes by Douglas Walton , 2008 .

[34]  Paul Audi,et al.  Grounding: Toward a Theory of the In-Virtue-Of Relation , 2012 .

[35]  Douglas Walton,et al.  Story Similarity in Arguments from Analogy , 2012 .

[36]  Benjamin Schnieder,et al.  Metaphysical Grounding: Grounding: an opinionated introduction , 2012 .

[37]  Kelly Trogdon,et al.  An Introduction to Grounding , 2012 .

[38]  B. Waller.  Classifying and Analyzing Analogies , 2001 .

[39]  Kit Fine,et al.  The Question of Realism , 2001 .

[40]  David Liggins,et al.  Recent work on grounding , 2012 .