HASTY GENERALIZATION

Tristan ShawA hasty generalization is a broad claim based on too-limited evidence.

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EXAMPLE 1

Act #1, page 189, speaker: Mrs. Putnam

-”I knew it! Goody Osburn were midwife to me three times. I begged you, Thomas, did I

not? I begged him not to call Osburn because I feared her, my babies always shriveled in

her hands…”

-Ann is saying that she doesn’t want Mrs. Osburn as a

midwife because her children died in her hands. This

argument insinuates that Mrs. Osburn killed them,

even though there isn’t any evidence.

EXAMPLE 2

Act #2, page unknown, speaker: Danforth

- “And do you know that near to four hundred are in the

jails from Marblehead to Lynn, and upon my signature?”

-”And seventy-two condemned to hang by that signature?”

-Because Danforth has signed for the arrest of a lot of

other people, he must be correct for all of them. This is

obviously hasty generalization.

A N I N C R E D I B L Y S T U P I D V I D E O T H A T T A K E S W A Y T O O L O N G B U T S T I L L M A N A G E S T O G E T T H E

P O I N T A C R O S S :

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=-D2m7ER3ng4