People can’t/don’t say that “some foos are bar” or “foos tend to be bar” because it is often less accurate than “all foos are bar” or better yet “foos are bar”. This is because truth is fuzzy, not binary or digital. For example, “some humans have two arms” gives you very little information. Do 10 out of seven billion humans have two arms? 6.99999 billion out of 7 billion? Maybe half of humans?
By contrast the statement, “humans each have two arms” or even “all humans have two arms” is mostly true, probably better than 99% true, despite the existence of rare counter examples. You can make useful plans based on the knowledge that “all humans have two arms”.
If we see truth as binary, and allow a mostly true statement to be invalidated by a single rare counterexample, we have lost a lot of real information. If I know that 100% of humans have two arms, I have a more complete and accurate, though imperfect, view of the world than if I know only that “some humans have two arms”.
Best of all of course is if I know that 99.9834% +/- 0.0026% of humans have two arms. However absent such precise information, the statement “humans have two arms” is a pretty accurate and useful representation of reality.
People can’t/don’t say that “some foos are bar” or “foos tend to be bar” because it is often less accurate than “all foos are bar” or better yet “foos are bar”. This is because truth is fuzzy, not binary or digital. For example, “some humans have two arms” gives you very little information. Do 10 out of seven billion humans have two arms? 6.99999 billion out of 7 billion? Maybe half of humans?
By contrast the statement, “humans each have two arms” or even “all humans have two arms” is mostly true, probably better than 99% true, despite the existence of rare counter examples. You can make useful plans based on the knowledge that “all humans have two arms”.
If we see truth as binary, and allow a mostly true statement to be invalidated by a single rare counterexample, we have lost a lot of real information. If I know that 100% of humans have two arms, I have a more complete and accurate, though imperfect, view of the world than if I know only that “some humans have two arms”.
Best of all of course is if I know that 99.9834% +/- 0.0026% of humans have two arms. However absent such precise information, the statement “humans have two arms” is a pretty accurate and useful representation of reality.