Concepts in Need of Further Discussion (Generalizations)
Seeing as generalizations have yet to be discussed, I will talk about generalizations (I think all the other previous concepts have had pretty well thought out and talked about). In chapter fourteen, from the Epstein book, there are pre-distinguished premises that are needed for a good generalization to occur. There must always be a big enough sample size, a sample size that is studied well, and a sample size that is representative. (289) However, according to the text, even if the three requirements for a good generalization are satisfied, the result of the generalization can still be a weak and/or bad argument.
The idea of generalizing, without being some sort of professional with scientific reasoning, can lead to bad things, as well as, evidently a bad argument. It is, as shown in some examples in the text, to say because a person has met a certain amount of people from a specific subgroup, leads to the idea that there is some quality or trait that is consistently showing and that, in their perspective, is shown in everyone in that subgroup, which is unlikely especially considering what exactly it is that person is proposing that is shown in that subgroup.
This chapter also covers terms such representative sample (if a sample is unbiased, and represents all subgroups of the entire population equally as all the other subgroups are represented) and random sampling (only correct and valid if the choices that were chosen at random had an equal chance of not getting picked from the rest of the members of the population that could have been chosen instead, and vice versa). (284)
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I definitely agree with what you’ve said, especially with your example. It seems to me that most people would automatically assume that most people that consist of a particular group are in said group because of some kind of trait or something with that personality. Because of that, some may say that new members of the group would have made it because of the predisposition of having those same traits, therefore making it possible for them to join that group. It may be true to an extent, but there are the occasions where the members of the group may not be alike or have a big common interest. Sometimes it’s just because they are open people that are easy to get along with.
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