Vague Generalities

One section of Ch. 8 that caught my eye that has not yet been discussed was the section on vague generalities. This sections discusses the direct ways of reasoning with almost all and arguing backwards with almost all. Using the words "all" and "some" have lots of ambiguity in them but with the skills that we have acquired we are a lot to determine if the argument is valid or not. When we look at the premises it gives us a good reason to believe the conclusion of each even though the conclusion doesn't follow. When using the direct way of reasoning with almost all, almost all are S and P, a is S so a is P; almost all S are P+a is S--> a is P. Arguing backwards with almost all, almost all S are P, a is P so a is S; almost all S are P+ a is P--> a is S. At first this section was quite confusing for me but after i read and re-read the section a few times it all started to click and makes much more sense.