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{{short description|Informal fallacy of generalization}}

{{unreferenced|date=January 2008}}

An '''overwhelming exception''' is an [[informal fallacy]] of [[faulty generalization|generalization]]. It is a generalization that is accurate, but comes with one or more qualifications which eliminate so many cases that what remains is much less impressive than the initial statement might have led one to believe.<ref name="Fischer1970">{{citation |title = Historians' Fallacies: Toward A Logic of Historical Thought |publisher= HarperCollins |isbn= 978-0-06-131545-9 |year=1970 |___location= New York |oclc= 185446787 |series= Harper torchbooks |edition= first |first= D. H. |last= Fischer |author-link= David Hackett Fischer |page= 127 |url= https://archive.org/stream/HistoriansFallaciesTowardALogicOfHistoricalThought/historians_fallacies_toward_a_logic_of_historical_thought#page/n149/mode/2up}}</ref>

'''==Examples:'''==

An '''overwhelming exception''' is a [[logical fallacy]] similar to a [[hasty generalization]]. It is a generalization which is accurate, but comes with one or more qualifications which eliminate so many cases that what remains is much less impressive than the initial statement might have led one to assume.

* "Our foreign policy has always helped other countries, except of course when it is against our National Interest..." ''(The false implication is that our foreign policy always helps other countries)''.

:The false implication is that their foreign policy always helps other countries.

The rhetorical use of the fallacy can be used to comic effect, as in the below examples:

* "All right, but apart from the sanitation, the medicine, education, wine, public order, irrigation, roads, a fresh water system, and public health, ''what have the Romans ever done for us?!''" – ''(The attempted implication (fallaciously false in this case) is that the Romans did nothing for us). This is a quotation from [[Monty Python]]'s [[Life of Brian]].''

:The attempted implication (fallacious in this case) is that the Romans did nothing for them.

*"Well, I promise the answer will always be ''yes.'' Unless ''no'' is required." – ''[[Madagascar: Escape 2 Africa]]''

*"Any customer can have a car painted any color that he wants so long as it is black." – ''[[q:Henry Ford#My Life and Work (1922)|My Life and Work]]'' by [[Henry Ford]]

==See also==

'''Examples:'''

See also *[[faultyFaulty generalization]] for {{snd}}other fallacies involving [[generalization]].

==References==

* "All right, but apart from the sanitation, the medicine, education, wine, public order, irrigation, roads, a fresh water system, and public health, what have the Romans ever done for us?" ''(The attempted implication (fallaciously false in this case) is that the Romans did nothing for us). This is a quotation from [[Monty Python]]'s [[Life of Brian]].''

{{reflist}}

* "Our foreign policy has always helped other countries, except of course when it is against our National Interest..." ''(The false implication is that our foreign policy always helps other countries)''.

* "All Americans are useless at foreign languages. Ok, I'll make an exception for those who live in multi-ethnic neighbourhoods, have parents who speak a foreign language, are naturally gifted in languages, have lived abroad or who went to a school with a good foreign language program, but the rest are absolutely useless at foreign languages."

* All dogs are black, except for those which are not black. (This is also a [[Tautology (rhetoric)|tautology]], or rather a [[tautology (logic)#Tautologies versus validities in first-order logic|validity]].)

*Except for that Mrs. [[Lincoln]], how was the show. This is a fallacy because Mrs. Lincoln, can obviously not ignore her husband's assassination.

{{Fallacies}}

See also [[faulty generalization]] for other fallacies involving [[generalization]].

{{Relevance[[Category:Inductive fallacies}}]]

{{Informal_Fallacy}}

{{logic-stub}}

[[Category:Inductive fallacies]]

[[he:יותר מדי חריגים]]