General Claims and Precise Generalities

After reading chapter 8, I learned several new concepts that were interesting. The parts that were interesting to me were general claims and precise generalities.

Section A describes the about the two words “All” and “Some” used in general claims. All means “Every single one, no exceptions.” While “Some” means “At least one.” Which is pretty simple because anyone who speaks the English language should know about these words. For instance, my lab instructor told the whole class the other day, “All urine samples must be dispose into the toilet. Some of you might pour it down the sink” The use of the word “All” in this example is that the lab instructor want every single urine sample to go into the toilet.

The first part of section C explains about the precise number. Using a precise number in an argument can either strengthen the argument or weaken it. For instance, 62% of all students who take biology from Mrs. P will pass. Darrell took Mrs. P's biology course last semester. Therefore, Darrell passed Mrs. P biology course. This argument is weak because there is a 38 percent that the premise could be true. A Higher percentage would have strengthens the argument. Also the precise number does not always have to be very high to make all argument stronger, in some cases where very low percentage could work as well.