Falsified Inductive Generalization Fallacy

Falsified inductive generalization occurs when a class is defined too narrowly to omit certain members that are removed to make a point about the class. This is a form of circular reasoning. It occurs when a wide abstraction (such as scientists) is restricted to a narrow set of particulars (only those scientists who believe in the Big-Bang-Billions-of-Years-No-Flood-Molecules-to-Man story) and then it is concluded that an attribute of these particulars (the scientists without the thousands who reject the story) must be definitive of the abstraction (scientists), thus negating the entire principled structure underlying the abstraction (scientists are people who do science: observe, record, make conclusions based on observations, etc.). Falsified inductive generalization looks a lot like the no true Scotsman fallacy or the frozen abstraction fallacy. It is one of the ways that a term can be defined too narrowly, and it is a persuasive definition fallacy. The no true scientist fallacy is a type of this fallacy that has become very popular among zealots of the Secular Humanist religion. Falsified inductive generalization is the counter fallacy to package dealing or equating opposites. Falsified inductive generalization omits part of a class. Package dealing and equating opposites fallacies include things that are not part of the class.

Examples of the Falsified Inductive Generalization Fallacy

Bill Nye, arguing against Creation science: “it’s generally agreed that the Big Bang happened 13.7 billion years ago.”

Bill Nye repeatedly committed the falsified inductive generalization fallacy during this effort to eliminate Creation science.

Rocky: "There is only one race, the human race. We have a common set of parents. We know this by Divine revelation. Genetic studies confirm this."

Sandy: "No. Some people are not really part of the human race. They are only partially human. At least they are not persons. They aren't fully evolved."

Sandy is committing the logical fallacy of falsified inductive generalization. He is doing this based on presuppositions that include Naturalism, Materialism, and Evolutionism.

Rocky: "An abortion is murder of a preson."

Sandy: "No. Fetuses are not persons. They are fully human, but they have not yet become persons. In fact, Dr. Mark Mercer, chairperson of the philosophy department at Halifax’s St. Mary’s University, informs us that a child in not actually a person until they are at least eighteen months old."

This is another example of the logical fallacy of falsified inductive generalization. Sandy makes his assertion based on assumptions. Rocky defines the "person" class based on Divine revelation.