PHI 1101 Chapter Notes - Chapter 7: Hasty Generalization, John Travolta, Fallacy

• School: University of Ottawa
• Department: Philosophy
• Course: PHI 1101
• Professor: Sascha Maicher

Document Summary

Fallacies of induction: arguments that are supposed to raise the probability of their conclusions, but are so weak as to fail almost entirely to do so. Speakers/writers make generalizations all the time: ex. General statements are often supported by feeble, inadequate reasoning. Generalizing from too few cases (hasty generalization): arriving at a general statement/rule by citing too few supporting cases: ex. The food in l. a. is lousy, judging from this meal. Has made a sweeping generalization about food sold at restaurants in a very large city, based on their experience at one restaurant. Support is so weak as to count as non-existent. Fallacy of the lonely fact: a very appropriate alternative name for the fallacy of hasty generalization (the speaker has offered us what might be called a lonely fact: ex. The police stopped me for driving 5 miles over the speed limit. The fact that you were cited for driving 5 miles over is a lonely fact.