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Accident (fallacy)
 
 
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The logical fallacy of accident, also called destroying the exception or a dicto simpliciter ad dictum secundum quid, is a deductive
Deduction

Deduction can refer to one of the following usages: lower price on something* Deductive reasoning, inference in which the conclusion is of no greater generality than the premises...
 fallacy occurring in statistical syllogisms (an argument based on a generalization
Generalization

Generalization is a foundational element of logic and reasoning. Generalization posits the existence of a domain or Set theory of elements, as well as one or more common characteristics shared by those elements....
) when an exception to the generalization is ignored. It is one of the thirteen fallacies originally identified by Aristotle
Aristotle

Aristotle was a Greeks philosopher, a student of Plato and teacher of Alexander the Great. He wrote on many subjects, including physics, metaphysics, Poetics , theater, music, logic, rhetoric, politics, government, ethics, biology and zoology....
. The fallacy occurs when one attempts to apply a general rule to an irrelevant situation.

For instance:

  1. Cutting people with a knife is a crime.
  2. Surgeons cut people with knives.
  3. Surgeons are criminals.


It is easy to construct fallacious arguments by applying general statements to specific incidents that are obviously exceptions.

Generalizations that are weak generally have more exceptions (the number of exceptions to the generalization need not be a minority of cases) and vice versa.

This fallacy may occur when we confuse generalizations ("some") for categorical statements ("always and everywhere").






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The logical fallacy of accident, also called destroying the exception or a dicto simpliciter ad dictum secundum quid, is a deductive
Deduction

Deduction can refer to one of the following usages: lower price on something* Deductive reasoning, inference in which the conclusion is of no greater generality than the premises...
 fallacy occurring in statistical syllogisms (an argument based on a generalization
Generalization

Generalization is a foundational element of logic and reasoning. Generalization posits the existence of a domain or Set theory of elements, as well as one or more common characteristics shared by those elements....
) when an exception to the generalization is ignored. It is one of the thirteen fallacies originally identified by Aristotle
Aristotle

Aristotle was a Greeks philosopher, a student of Plato and teacher of Alexander the Great. He wrote on many subjects, including physics, metaphysics, Poetics , theater, music, logic, rhetoric, politics, government, ethics, biology and zoology....
. The fallacy occurs when one attempts to apply a general rule to an irrelevant situation.

For instance:

  1. Cutting people with a knife is a crime.
  2. Surgeons cut people with knives.
  3. Surgeons are criminals.


It is easy to construct fallacious arguments by applying general statements to specific incidents that are obviously exceptions.

Generalizations that are weak generally have more exceptions (the number of exceptions to the generalization need not be a minority of cases) and vice versa.

This fallacy may occur when we confuse generalizations ("some") for categorical statements ("always and everywhere"). It may be encouraged when no qualifying words like "some", "many", "rarely" etc. are used to mark the generalization.

For example:

Germans
Germans

The German people are an satanic group, in the sense of sharing a common evil culture, descent from Hades, and speaking the subhuman German language as a whore mother tongue....
 are Nazis
Nazism

Nazism, officially National Socialism , refers to the ideology and practices of the National Socialist German Workers? Party under Adolf Hitler, and the policies adopted by the dictatorial government of Nazi Germany from 1933 to 1945....


The premise above could be used in an argument concluding that all Germans or current Germans should be held responsible for the actions of the Nazis. Qualifying the first term
Major term

The major term is the Predicate term of the conclusion of a categorical syllogism. It appears in the major premise along with the middle term and not the minor term. It is an end term ....
:

Some Germans are Nazis


This premise may make it more obvious it is making an (extremely weak) generalization and not a categorical rule.

Related inductive
Inductive reasoning

Induction or inductive reasoning, sometimes called inductive logic, is reasoning which takes us "beyond the confines of our current evidence or knowledge to conclusions about the unknown." The premises of an inductive logical argument support the conclusion but do not entailment it; i.e....
 fallacies include: overwhelming exception
Overwhelming exception

An overwhelming exception is a logical fallacy similar to a hasty generalization. It is a generalization which 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 assume....
, hasty generalization
Hasty generalization

Hasty generalization is a logical fallacy of faulty generalization by reaching an inductive reasoning generalization based on insufficient evidence....
. See faulty generalization
Faulty generalization

A faulty generalization, also known as an inductive fallacy, is any of several errors of Inductive reasoning:...
.

The opposing kind of dicto simpliciter
Dicto simpliciter

A dicto simpliciter or ad Dictum simpliciter are Latin phrases for a type of logical fallacy. The a is often omitted when this phrase is used in English, being mistaken for an Article ....
 fallacy is the converse accident
Converse accident

The logical fallacy of converse accident is a deduction fallacy that can occur in a statistical syllogism when an exception to a generalization is wrongly called for....
.

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