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From: gtaylor@astroatc.UUCP (that wierdo in the 5-sided shoebox office)
Newsgroups: soc.women,news.misc
Subject: Re: Update on Guidelines for Posting to Soc.women
Message-ID: <389@astroatc.UUCP>
Date: Thu, 6-Aug-87 17:42:44 EDT
Article-I.D.: astroatc.389
Posted: Thu Aug  6 17:42:44 1987
Date-Received: Sat, 8-Aug-87 12:59:44 EDT
References: <1129@gryphon.CTS.COM>
Reply-To: gtaylor@astroatc.UUCP (that wierdo in the 5-sided shoebox office)
Organization: Them, mostly. Unless I post-then it's me.
Lines: 32
Xref: mnetor soc.women:6080 news.misc:834

In article <1129@gryphon.CTS.COM> mhnadel@gryphon.CTS.COM (Miriam Nadel) writes:

Just a suggestion on this one....

>>7) It is a good idea to cite references when stating facts.  Discussion
>>of personal experiences is welcome, but one should be wary of excessive
>>generalization based on personal experience.  For example, your 
>>ex-wife's alimony demands do not imply that most women want men to support 
>>them.

It certainly seems sound to have the previous paragraph (which I'm not
including here) make reference for the need on the part of some male
posters to be sensitive to the anger that some women may feel, but it
seems to me that the above referenced section suggests by the chosen
example to suggest or imply that excessive generalization on the basis
of personal experience is a "male" trait. Is it possible to express 
this entirely appropriate point in a way which is more gender-neutral?

As Skyler pointed out in her recent posting on informal logical fallacy
in soc.women discourse, the tendency to fallacy and sloppy rhetoric is
not limited to the beneficiaries of the Patriarchy. Unless you'd
care to argue that the charge of excessive generalization from 
experience as a criticism is just another way that men seek to oppress 
women, or that such a fault only applies to discourse by men.

Thank you,
Greg
-- 
the reach of the arm.                   Gregory Taylor Astronautics
the sweep of the eye.                   5800 Cottage Grove Rd. Madison
the stones thrown at the darkness       WI 53704 608-221-9001,x232a
outside the fire's circle of light.     ...uwvax!astroatc!gtaylor