ith a dozen returned soldiers he may
not declare that all American army men are glad to be out of France,
for had he investigated a little further he might have found an equal
number who regret the return to this land. He must base his general
statement on so many instances that his conclusion will convince not
only him, but people disposed to oppose his view. He must be better
prepared to show the truth of his declaration than merely to dismiss
an example which does not fit into his scheme by glibly asserting that
"exceptions prove the rule." He must show that what seems to
contradict him is in nature an exception and therefore has nothing at
all to do with his rule. Beginning speakers are quite prone to this
fault of too hasty generalization.

EXERCISES

1. Write down five general theories or statements which have been
established by inductive reasoning.

2. Is there any certainty that they will stand unchanged forever?

3. Under what circumstances are such changes made?

4. Can you cite any accepted laws or theories of past periods which
have been overturned?

Deductive Reasoning. After general laws have been established, either
by human experience or accepted inductive reasoning, they may be cited
as applying to any particular case under consideration. This passing
from the general law to the particular instance is deductive
reasoning. Deductive reasoning has a regular form called the
syllogism.

Major premise. All men are mortal.
Minor premise. Socrates is a man.
Conclusion. Therefore, Socrates is mortal.

If the three parts of a syllogism are correct it has absolute
convincing power. Most attempts to disprove its statement attack the
first two statements. Although it carries such an air of certainty it
is likely to many errors in use. An error like this is common:

All horses are animals.
All cows are animals.
Therefore, all cows are horses.

Explain the fallacy in this syllogism.

Quite as frequently the incorrect syllogism is of this kind.

The edge of a stream is a bank.
A bank is a financial institution.
Therefore, the edge of a stream is a financial institution.

You will comment upon this that its evident silliness would prevent
any speaker from using such a form in serious argument. But recall
that in the discussion of any idea a term may get its meaning slightly
changed. In that slight change of meaning lurks the error illustrated
here, ready to lead to false reasoning and weaken