Ch. 8 = General Claims & Vague Generalities

General Claims involve the word "all" or "some." Claims that consist of these words can make a claim appear valid, but in actuality, the claim may be too general and there could be other possibilities that could make the claim invalid.

For example:
All elementary school and junior high school kids pee in the public pools.

All is "every single one, no exceptions,... and their is at least one." (Epstein 160). So, in the above example there is no way that none of the elementary and junior high school do not pee in public pools. At least one has got to.

This claim is invalid because not all elementary school and junior high school kids pee in the public pools.
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Some on the other hand is "at least one, but all." (Epstein 160).

I will stick with the same example so it does not get confusing:

Some elementary school and junior high school kids pee in the public pools.

In this case, not all elementary and junior high school kids pee in the public pools, just some.
Using "some" in a claim is very vague because it is not backed up by a number or statistic, which prevents a claim from getting precise.


Vague generalities do not involve numbers in a claim.

For example:

• Most of the students who play badminton in high school are Asian.
• Almost all college students have tasted alcohol.
  
• Very few toddlers enjoy eating brussel sprouts.
  
• All brown bears hibernate during the winter season.
• Many of the students attending San Jose State are commuters.

Although the words "some" and "all" are classified as vague when put into a claim, they can be valid as long as there is "enough precision" (Epstein 171). If the premises are convincing enough to make the conclusion plausible, then the argument is valid.

Almost all S are P
a is S ---> Usually Strong (Epstein 171)
So a is P

For example:
Very few Killer Whales do not squeal.
Shouka is a Killer Whale.
So Shouka squeals.