Someone argues: “A white medicine benefited a patient. This other medicine is also white; therefore it will have the same effect.” This is invalid: whiteness is not established as a cause of medicinal efficacy.
Relevant evidence would concern the medicines' active ingredients, dose, mode of use, and clinical evidence. A shared appearance does not transfer the therapeutic judgment.
The principle is that sharing an irrelevant attribute does not justify transferring a different judgment.
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Analogy: Original and New Cases, Common Cause, Co-variation and Elimination
Someone argues: “A white medicine benefited a patient. This other medicine is also white; therefore it will have the same effect.” This is invalid: whiteness is not established as a cause of medicinal efficacy.
Relevant evidence would concern the medicines' active ingredients, dose, mode of use, and clinical evidence. A shared appearance does not transfer the therapeutic judgment.
The principle is that sharing an irrelevant attribute does not justify transferring a different judgment.