Chapter 8 General Claims

Between One and All
Chapter 8 talks about general claims which are claims made in an argument that address a general topic. For example, saying that all salads are healthy is a general claim because it addresses salads in general. These general claims can be weak and invalid because of the generality included with them. In section C, they mention precise generalities. A precise generality is a claim that uses a quantity within the the argument. For example, "7% of San Jose State students graduate in 4 years. Mary graduated from San Jose State, therefore she graduated in more than four years." This could be either true or false, we can't tell whether Mary is part of the 93% percent that graduates after 4 years. Also in section C, they talk about vague generalities. In this they usually use the words "all," "some," "no," or "only." Instead of exact quantities they include a more vague key word. So for example you could say that "only a few students graduate in 4 years." With this you can create strong arguments but they can be weak as well.