[lit-ideas] Re: The Fallacy of Hasty Generalization
- From: Robert Paul <rpaul@xxxxxxxx>
- To: lit-ideas@xxxxxxxxxxxxx
- Date: Fri, 29 Sep 2006 21:43:33 -0700
Lawrence:
I have some texts on logic but couldn't find the one that was best in
describing fallacies; so I went back to Google. This is the fallacy I have
been attempting to describe:
http://www.nizkor.org/features/fallacies/hasty-generalization.html
Ah, while I was laboring away, Lawrence slipped this in over the
transom. Why is
the many-hued fallacy of 'hasty generalization' a fallacy? Because it could be
false that all Xs are Ys (the desired conclusion, apparently) and yet
true that
some Xs are Ys. This fallacy I tried to express when I noted earlier that from
'There is an x, such that...' one couldn't infer 'So, all x are such that...'
This is easily formalized, which might appear to some good evidence that such
fallacies have an common underlying form.
I think, Lawrence, you sometimes confuse the limits of induction with
something
else. Its as if you thought that what was wrong with inductive generalizations
was that they weren't spiffy deductive arguments in which one could not deny
the truth of the conclusion and grant the truth of the premises without
contradiction.
And here I leave and commend the subject to Donal.
Robert Paul
reed.edu
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