Overwhelming exception: Difference between revisions

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Revision as of 22:19, 14 October 2014

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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:'''==

* "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]]''.

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

==See also==

See also *[[faultyFaulty generalization]] (for other fallacies involving [[generalization]].)

==References==

{{reflist}}

{{Relevance fallacies}}