Newsroom Magazine Global Edition Global Edition Today Is Friday, July 30, 2010
Switch To U.S. Edition
Language Selectors
English flagItalian flagKorean flagChinese (Simplified) flagChinese (Traditional) flagPortuguese flagGerman flagFrench flagSpanish flagJapanese flagArabic flagRussian flagGreek flagDutch flagBulgarian flagCzech flagCroatian flagDanish flagFinnish flagHindi flagPolish flagRomanian flagSwedish flagNorwegian flagCatalan flagFilipino flagHebrew flagIndonesian flagLatvian flagLithuanian flagSerbian flagSlovak flagSlovenian flagUkrainian flagVietnamese flagAlbanian flagGalician flagMaltese flagThai flagTurkish flagHungarian flagBelarus flagIrish flagIcelandic flagMacedonian flagMalay flagPersian flag
Contact Information
Newsroom Magazine Sections


Authors & Contributors
« View All Content In
Order Published »
« View Content In
Logic Section »
Academic » Logic »
Fallacy of Accident: Logic Definition
Jeffrey Slee
Sunday June 28, 2009 11:59 am
Updated June 29, 2009 8:28 am
Logic Section
Print Print
Email Email


Newsroom Magazine Logic And Analysis

Fallacy of Accident

classification : informal, deductive – fallacies involving statistical syllogisms

A principle that holds true as a general rule applied to a specific case that is unusual or atypical.

Foundations

Involves reasoning with rules of thumb. The difference between rules of thumb and universal generalizations, is that the former have exceptions.

Examples

It is good to return things you have borrowed. Therefore, you should return an automatic rifle to the madman from whom it was borrowed.

The U.S. is a true democracy; therefore, children and criminals should be allowed to vote.

Other Names:

Destroying the Exception

Sweeping Generalization

Poisoning the Well

Search Tags: * * * * * * * * * * *