Ch 8 General Claims

According to Epstein, general claims "assert something in a general way about all or part of a collection" (159). An example of a general claim is "All good students do their homework. Bob did his homework. So bob is a good student. Although it is a general claim, it is not valid because the premises may be true, yet Bob might not have completed all of his assigned homework from last week. 

When making a general claim, there are very clear meanings to certain words such as all, some, no and only, so you have to be careful about what you say in the claim. When someone claims that "all" athletes are fast, there are also saying that everyone who is an athlete is fast. Also, stating that "some" pit bulls are nice, means that at least one pit bull is nice. Other words which Epstein clarifies are "no," which also means "every single one is not" (160). Also, the contradictory of a claim has opposite truth value. For example, for a claim being "some babies cry," the contradictory would be "no babies cry."