The proportion of shared properties in the known sample is a reliable indicator of similarity in unexamined properties, given sufficient sample size.

On the sampling conception of analogical arguments, acknowledged similarities between two domains are treated as statistically relevant evidence for further similarities. The simplest version of the sampling argument is due to Mill (1843/1930). An argument from analogy, he writes, is “a competition between the known points of agreement and the known points of difference.” Agreement of \(A\) and \(B\) in 9 out of 10 properties implies a probability of 0.9 that \(B\) will possess any other propert