 What philosophical basis can be provided for reasoning by analogy? What justification can be given for the claim that analogical arguments deliver plausible conclusions? There have been several ideas for answering this question. One natural strategy assimilates analogical reasoning to some other well-understood argument pattern, a form of deductive or inductive reasoning  (§4.1,  §4.2). A few philosophers have explored the possibility of a priori justification  (§4.3).  A pragmatic justification may be available for practical applications of analogy, notably in legal reasoning  (§4.4).