====== Overwhelming exception ======

A form of illicit [[generalization:index|generalization]] by which a general rule is stated, which requires exceptions that are so broad that there is no meaningful scope left for the original statement.

Example:

> The answer is always //Yes//, except when it makes more sense to say //No//.

===== More examples =====
==== What have the Romans ever done for us? ====

Perhaps the best illustration of this form of fallacious thinking is a line from the [[wp>Monty Python|Monty Phython’s]] "[[wp>Monty Python's Life of Brian|The Life of Brian]]", in which [[wp>John Cleese|John Cleese]], as //Reg//, asks the following (rhetorical) question:

> “… //apart from the sanitation, the medicine, education, wine, public order, irrigation, roads, the fresh-water system, and public health, <u questionable "Overwhelming exception">what have the Romans ever done for us?</u> //”

While the question "What have the Romans ever done for us?" implicitly suggests that they did nothing or not much, the limitations stated in the same sentence are so overwhelming that this claim misses its point entirely.

FIXME //This article is still work in progress. More examples will follow...//

===== More informationen =====

  * [[wp>Overwhelming exception]] on //Wikipedia// 
  * [[https://www.logicallyfallacious.com/logicalfallacies/Overwhelming-Exception|Overwhelming Exception]] on //Logically Fallacious//