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Therefore his brother sam is a democrat compare that

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Therefore, his brother Sam is a Democrat.Compare that argument with this one:2.Both Bill and his brother Sam are attorneys and went to the same university. Bill is a Democrat.Therefore Sam is a Democrat, too.Page 340Argument 2 is stronger than Argument 1, because it introduces two additional relevant similaritiesbetween the premise analogue (Bill) and the conclusion analogue (Sam). Now look at Argument 3:3.Bill is an attorney. His brother Sam is not. Bill went to Ohio State. Sam did not attend college. Bill is aDemocrat.Therefore Sam is too.Argument 3 is weaker than Arguments 1 and 2, because it introduces relevant differences between thepremise and conclusion analogues. Now look at Argument 4:4.Bill has four brothers, including Sam. Bill and three of the brothers are Democrats.Therefore Sam is a Democrat, too.Argument 4 is just like Argument 1, but stronger, since it increases the number of brothers who areDemocrats. Next, look at Argument 5:5.Bill has four brothers, including Sam. All the brothers including Sam are attorneys. Bill and three of thebrothers are Democrats.Therefore Sam is a Democrat, too.Argument 5 is even stronger than Argument 4. It references another attribute (being an attorney) sharedby all the brothers.
Here is Argument 6:6.Bill, an attorney, has four brothers, including Sam. One of the other three sells real estate. Another is anunemployed artist. The third owns a restaurant. These three and Bill are all Democrats.Therefore Sam is a Democrat, too.Actually Argument 6 is as strong as Argument 5, but for a different reason. We still have four premise-analogues (Bill and the three brothers that don’t include Sam). Now it is true that, except for Bill, Sam’sbrothers aren’t attorneys. But in Argument 6 we don’t know what profession Sam is. The fact that Billand the other brothers are all Democrats despite exhibiting a diverse array of professions, makes it morelikely that, when it comes to this family, it doesn’t make any difference what Sam does professionally—he is still apt to be a Democrat.Guidelines for Thinking Critically About an Argument from AnalogyWith these examples in mind, you can see that an argument from analogy can be evaluated using thefollowing guidelines:The more similarities between the premise-analogue and the conclusion-analogue the stronger theargument, and the fewer the similarities (or the more the dissimilarities) the weaker the argument.Increasing the number of premise-analogues helps strengthen the argument, provided theadditional analogues are genuinely similar to the conclusion-analogue.Page 341Analogues that lack the attribute of interest arecontrary analogues,and the fewer of them amongthe premise-analogues the stronger the argument.

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