Talk:False analogy

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Is this the fallacy commonly referred to as "comparing apples with oranges" (as I like to call it, the "fruit fallacy")? Chris talk back 07:14, 1 December 2005 (UTC)

yes. see apples and oranges.

Dave (talk) 04:57, 30 May 2006 (UTC)

"False analogy," is not a logical fallacy, because logical fallacies consist of errors in reasoning. But a false analogy consists of an error in the substance of an argument. The logic is perfectly sound. What renders an argument containing a false analogy erroneous is not any property of the reasoning it uses, but whether or not its analogy is correct and relevant to the claim. I've replaced the words, "logical fallacy," with "fallacy." This page's content appears to have been taken largely from Stephen's Guide to fallacies which is partially incorrect. Robocracy 01:00, 24 October 2006 (UTC)

I disagree. It is a logical fallacy, however it is an informal, not a formal fallacy. --Gligeti 23:05, 26 January 2007 (UTC)

Wow, I just realized that there is a mess here about the meaning of the term Logical Fallacy. One school uses it in a strict sense to mean formal fallacy, the other, less academic meaning is all fallacies (formal and informal). Wiki is really inconsistent in its usage. Informal fallacies are categorized under Logical fallacies as in the less strict sense, but then it is defined in the main article in the strict sense. Major cleanup is needed. Either way, avoiding references to Logical fallacy and using the Formal fallacy in this context avoids the confusion. In the article about fallacy, it should be mentioned that Logical Fallacy is used in both meanings. Therefore I leave this distinction referencing formal, not logical fallacy in contrast to informal fallacy.

--Gligeti 08:22, 27 January 2007 (UTC)

The entire last bullet-point (referencing Paley and intelligent design) struck me as unnecessary. The previous bullet-point deals nicely with the relevant features of the watchmaker analogy; this one delves deeper into its bearing on intelligent design and the teleological argument. If this were one of those two articles, that would be appropriate given better NPOV; here, and phrased thus, it isn't. I've deleted the problematic paragraph.

--Zalmaki 16:50, 15 February 2007 (UTC)

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