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False Analogy
 
Description:

 
The argument draws a conclusion from observed cases that are only superficially or apparently similar to the unobserved cases about which the conclusion is being drawn.
 

 
Comments:

 
This fallacy applies only to inductive arguments that draw a conclusion, not to a whole class, but to other members of the class, or what are called "unobserved cases."
 

 
Examples:

"Just as in time the gentle rain can wear down the tallest mountains, so, in human life, all problems can be solved by patience and quiet persistence."

"We shouldn't put so much effort into adult literacy programs. After all, there is no point crying over spilled milk."
 

 
Discussion:

Some analogies are not false. Indeed, it could be argued that analogical reasoning is at the very foundation of all formal, rational thought. It is analogy that allows us to generalize from specific instances to general forms or abstract principles. For example, the form

                                                 All M are P.
                                                 S is M.         
                                                 S is P.

is merely a statement of what argument "All men are mortal, and Socrates is a man, so Socrates is mortal," has in common with other arguments that also subsume a case under a general rule. If we were unable to reason by analogy, we would be unable to tease this general form out of the many arguments that follow this pattern. Formal reasoning is based on our ability to recognize relevant similarities.

Of course, the fallacy of False Analogy mimics good reasoning by relying on our ability to recognize similarities, and upon our (highly valuable) tendency to draw conclusions based on those similarities. However, the fallacy of False Analogy errs by confusing irrelevant similarities with relevant similarities. The error of False Analogy is exposed by pointing out important or highly relevant dissimilarities between the cases cited in the premisses and the cases about which the conclusion is being drawn.

 

 
Classification: An Error in Sampling (an inductive fallacy of soundness with a falsehood in the minor premiss).

 
Source: Abraham Fraunce, Lawiers Logike, 1588. However, it was first treated as an Inductive fallacy by John Stuart Mill in A System of Logic, 1843.

 

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