False Analogy Examples

The best way to explain any complex concept is to use an analogy, where two ideas are compared to each other’s similarities to bring to light the central construct. As such, analogy is very significant in decision making, problem solving, perception and the like. However, in case of false analogy, the analogy doesn’t succeed because of faulty comparison. In false analogy, constructiveness of the argument gives way to deceptiveness and triviality, where the falseness in the analogy can be understood by the absurd construction of the argument. This can be best understood by the ‘watchmaker analogy’, which is used as an argument for the existence of God. According to this particular analogy, the complexity of the universe is similar to the complexity of a watch. Since every watch has a watchmaker, so the universe too must have a maker or designer, in short God. This analogy falls flat, because of the fatuousness of the comparison and is, today, considered to be the best example of false analogy. This will become clear when the argument is given an absurd turn. It can be accepted that the universe is as complex as a watch. But while the watch can be taken around in the pocket, the universe cannot be. Thus, an analogy becomes false when there are many characteristics that highlight the differences between the comparisons. To understand this better, read the various examples given below which may at first appear to be analogies but are in fact false analogies.

Examples Of False Analogy

Employees are like nails. To make them work they must be hit on the head just like nails.
Running a government is like running a business. Business is concerned more with the bottom line and so must the government.
People are like dogs. They respond best to clear discipline.
This music is like a dream. It lifts you up to a spiritual plane.
A school is not so different from a business. It needs a clear competitive strategy that will lead to profitable growth.
Clogged arteries require surgery to clear them. If this is true for arteries, so it must be true for clogged highways which need measures that are as drastic.
Most extremists follow Islam. Therefore, Islam is a religion that propagates extremism.
Dina has to be rich or at least be an heiress. She after all belongs to the Alpha Phi Lambda sorority which is the richest sorority on campus.
You would be the perfect candidate for the job but you are a former felon, and according to records almost 80% of all former felons relapse to their old ways.
There has to be life on other planets because as of today no one has been able to conclusively prove that there is no life there.
Mind and rivers, can be both broad. It is a known fact that the broader the river, the shallower it is. Therefore it must be true, that the broader the mind is, the shallower it is.
Leather jackets and baggy pants are the favorite attire of gangsters. So, if you wear them it will prove that you are a gangster.
Education cannot prepare men and women for marriage. Trying to educate them for marriage is like trying to teach them to swim without allowing them to go into the water. It can’t be done.
Bill Clinton has no experience of serving in the military. To have Bill Clinton become president, and thus commander in chief of the armed forces of the United States, is like electing some passer-by on the street to fly the space shuttle.

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