Generality

[Fr. généralité; Lat. general it as.] State of being general, or quality of including species, kinds, or particulars. - The main body; the bulk; the major part; as, the " generality of mankind." ( Add is on.) -That which is general; that which is other than special; a general or vague statement, condition, or phrase. "Let us descend from generalities to particulars."-Landor. Generalizable, a . That may be generalized, or brought under a general head, rute, or system. Generalization, n. [Fr. généralisation .] Act of making general; act of reducing particulars to generals or to their genera. "Generalization is only the apprehension of one in the many. Sir W. Hamilton. ( Logic ) The act of comprehending under a common name several objects, agreeing in some point which we abstract from each of them, and which that common name serves to indicate. When we contemplate several objects resembling each other in some part of their nature, we can, by attending to that part alone, a ign them one common name, which will expre or stand for them all as far as they agree, and this is what is called generalization. Another kind of generalization is from observing that, when two or more objects have certain things or properties in common, that therefore they have others also in commen, as where Newton, from the fall of an apple, discovered the law of gravitation. In this proce of generalizing there is involved a principle which experience does not furnish, by which we affirm not only that all heavy bodies which have been observed gravitate, but that all heavy bodies, whether they have been observed or not, do so. In this there is implied a belief that there exists a certain order in nature, and that, under the same circumstances, the same substances will present the same phenomena. See INDUCTION, CLASSIFICATION.