General Claims
General claims can easily be considered as valid, but most of the times they are not. In order to make a general claim good we have to know when to use words such as "all" and "some." All is implying that it is everything single one or thing, with no exceptions. Some implies that it is at least one, but not all. The book uses good examples to say "all," by saying all or every. In order for "all" to be valid it needs to be clear that what is being said implies that every single one is included. An example would be that all toilets flush. This is stating that toilets flush, no exceptions. An example of "some" would be that girl has long hair. This is saying that at least one girl has long hair, but not every girl has long hair.
Contradictory Claims
It is easy to assume that the contradiction of a claim is the opposite, but in same cases that makes the contradictory claim false. An example of this would be, "all kittens meow" and "all kittens don't meow." This is false and the correct contradictory claim is "some kittens don't meow." To figure out the contradictory of a claim takes common sense. You have to think about what would make more sense than just writing the exact opposite which may make no sense at all.
I also talked about general claims in my post. You have a solid and clear explanation of the subject. I did notice a possible typo – when you were using the example of girls with long hair, were you attempting to say, “that some girls have long hair?” It seems to me that would make more sense for the subject that you were trying to explain. I did not talk about contradictory claims though. That seems to be a simple example of a contradictory claim. By explaining how the claim is false and providing the correct contradictory claim, I clearly understand your discussion. Thank you for the examples!
ReplyDelete