Argument from equality

You claim a permission, an entitlement or an obligation for one party on the ground that another party already has it or takes it. The argument works on the rule that like cases should be treated alike, so what the other party in fact does or gets becomes what the first party may or should do. It can be attacked by showing that the two parties are not owed the same treatment, so that what holds for the one need not hold for the other.

Example

You should not stop buying guns because criminals have not stopped buying guns

Standardised form

You (a) should not stop buying guns (X) because criminals (b) have not stopped buying guns (X).

Transformations applied: none — the example is already in canonical form.

Classification

The subjects differ and the predicate is the same, so the argument form is beta (a is X because b is X).

The conclusion is about one specific person (s) and the premise about all criminals (u), so the argument substance is su.

The keyword EQUAL describes the relationship between subjects a and b. The argument lever can thus be formulated as “You (a) are EQUAL to criminals (b)”.

Not to be confused with

• Argument from comparison — What is transferred is a judgement of quality rather than a permission. V ← V
• Argument from similarity — Both halves report how things stand; nothing is being recommended. F ← F
• Argument from analogy — The umbrella type, which leaves the kind of claim transferred open. ANALOGOUS
• Argument from totality — Same substance, different lever: the premise class is one the conclusion’s subject belongs to, not a separate party held to be its equal. BELONGS TO THE TOTALITY OF

Source

Source not yet recorded.

Other examples

• “Emma (a) should have a salary raise (X) because Peter (b) had a salary raise (X).” — source not yet recorded.
• “Dutch royals (a) should pay taxes (X), because every other citizen (b) pays taxes (X).” — from a news item on a poll by the Dutch television programme EenVandaag, in which 62 per cent of Dutch people said King Willem-Alexander, Queen Máxima and Princess Beatrix should pay taxes like every other citizen.

Notes

See the note on the argument from analogy.