# Topic: Generalisation

Errors in applying general rules, classes, or levels of description to cases – including overbroad rules, insufficient evidence, exceptions that swallow the rule, and unjustified fact-to-value leaps.

| Fallacy | Trigger – look for … |
| ------- | -------------------- |
| **[Accident fallacy](https://ad.hominem.info/check/generalization/accident_fallacy.md)** |  A *general rule* (law, principle, norm) applied rigidly to a *specific case* where special circumstances would warrant an exception. |
| **[Hasty generalization](https://ad.hominem.info/check/generalization/hasty.md)** |  A *broad or universal rule* inferred from too few (or unrepresentative) instances of a class. |
| **[Mereological fallacy](https://ad.hominem.info/check/generalization/mereological_fallacy.md)** |  A property of a system is attributed to a component, or properties of components are assumed to transfer unchanged to the system, ignoring emergent interactions. |
| **[Naturalistic fallacy](https://ad.hominem.info/check/generalization/naturalistic_fallacy.md)** |  A prescriptive conclusion (*what ought to be*) inferred directly from a descriptive premise (*what is*), or vice versa – without independent justification for the normative leap. |
| **[Overwhelming exception](https://ad.hominem.info/check/generalization/overwhelming_exception.md)** |  A *general rule or claim* is stated together with so many or so broad *exceptions* that the original statement is left with little or no meaningful scope, yet is presented as if it were still substantially valid. |

#END.