Overwhelming exception: Difference between revisions

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{{short description|Informal fallacy of generalization}}

{{unreferenced|date=January 2008}}

An '''overwhelming exception''' is an [[informal fallacy]] similar to aof [[hastyfaulty 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 |authorlinkauthor-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>

{{original research|date=June 2013}}

An '''overwhelming exception''' is an [[informal fallacy]] similar to a [[hasty 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 |authorlink= 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==

* "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.

* "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 (fallacious in this case) is that the Romans did nothing for us). This is a quotation from ''[[Monty Python's Life of Brian]]''.

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

* "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 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 (fallacious in this case) is that the Romans did nothing for us). This is a quotation" from– ''[[Monty Python's Life of Brian]]''.

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

: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." (from– ''[[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==

*[[Faulty generalization]] (for {{snd}}other fallacies involving [[generalization]])

==References==

{{reflist}}

{{Fallacies}}

{{Relevance fallacies}}

{{Informal_Fallacy}}

[[Category:Inductive fallacies]]

{{logic-stub}}