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Logic Report
Logic Report
Using Analogies
Analogies are comparisons of one item with or two others. Analogies are used
in three different ways.
3. In arguments: "My last car was a Honda. It gave me good gas mileage. I
just bought a new Honda. It will probably give me good gas mileage, too."
John Grisham's novels The Firm, The Pelican Brief, and A Time to Kill were all
made into block-buster movies. They will probably make a block-buster
movies out of his latest novel, The Testament.
The conclusion of this argument is that The Testament will become a block-
buster movie. The logical subject of the conclusion, and the target subject of
the argument, is The Testament. (Note that in this case the target subject
is not the grammatical subject.) The target attribute of the argument, is to be
a block-buster movie. In the argument, The Testament is compared with The
Firm, The Pelican Brief, and A Time to Kill. These three books comprise
the comparison set of the argument. And the premise is that all four of these
books, both the books in the comparison set and The Testament, are novels
by John Grisham. So being a novel by John Grisham is the comparison
attribute.