General Claims and Diagrams

General claims are claims that argue something about all or part of a collection in a general way. These claims may or may not be true depending on the wording. Epstein describes the usage of "all", "some", "no", and "only". An example of a valid general claim is "All drivers must get their license to drive a car. Jeff has his license. So Jeff can drive a car." When using "all" in an argument, one must consider that it means "every single one, no exceptions" or sometimes "every single one, and at least one." Some means "at least one". It can also mean "at least one, but not all." In both cases, the meaning depends on the argument. "No" can mean "no any single one" or "not even one."

Diagrams are a helpful way of understanding these kinds of arguments These types of diagrams are similar to a Venn Diagram. However, like the claims, diagrams can be valid or invalid. Ways to check for validity include: a collection is represented by an enclosed area, and if one area is entirely within another, then everything in one group is also in the other. Additionally, if two areas do not overlap each other, then the two areas have nothing in common with each other.