In the beginning of Chapter 8, there is a discussion on general claims using the words, “All” and “Some.” According to Epstein, all is used to describe a claim that means “every single one, no exceptions and some is used to describe a claim that means “at least one, but not all.” Out of the two, I found that the meaning behind the word some to be the most interesting to me because I’ve seen it being used in numerous situations. For example, a month or so ago my sorority was planning on going out to a toga party. Instead of listing those who weren’t going out and making them feel down, the president said, “some of you may not want to go to toga night. For those of you who aren’t, we can have a movie night at the house tonight as well.” By using some, she didn’t have to target out the one girl who didn’t feel comfortable with going out. At least one girl, but not all the girls in the sorority would not want to go out, and so she used some purposely to be more vague and not make the one girl or girls feel bad. This is a useful tactic to use in other situations as well, when people don't want to place a target on someone who doesn't want others to know they are feeling uncomfortable in other situations. Furthermore, if she were to have said, “all of you may not want to go to toga night, that would have implied that every single one of the sorority girls did not want to go out, no exceptions.
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I liked your post and the example you used to explain the ambiguity of the word “some”. The fact that the president used the word “some” to talk about those that were not attending the party was very considerate of her. She was being considerate of those girls or even just one girl that was not attending. By using the word “some”, the president was able to conceal the identity of those girls that were not attending and the rest of group was unaware of who those people were. I’m sure those girls or just that one girl who was not attending greatly appreciated it.
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