generalization

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American Heritage Dictionary:

gen·er·al·i·za·tion

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(jĕn'ər-ə-lĭ-zā'shən) pronunciation
n.
  1. The act or an instance of generalizing.
  2. A principle, statement, or idea having general application.

A remark made about all things of some kind, or typical things of a kind. In philosophy the term does not retain the pejorative air sometimes associated with it in ordinary contexts. See laws of nature, quantifier.


stimulus generalization

Tendency of a person to respond to an unfamiliar stimulus or situation in a manner similar to a trained response to a familiar stimulus. Generalization is believed to be important in transfer of training.

Quotes About:

Generalizations

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Quotes:

"Any general statement is like a check drawn on a bank. Its value depends on what is there to meet it." - Ezra Pound

"Obvious enough that generalities work to protect the mind from the great outdoors; is it possible that this was in fact their first purpose?" - Howard Nemerov

"Generalization is necessary to the advancement of knowledge; but particularly is indispensable to the creations of the imagination. In proportion as men know more and think more they look less at individuals and more at classes. They therefore make better theories and worse poems." - Thomas B. Macaulay

"A sweeping statement is the only statement worth listening to. The critic without faith gives balanced opinions, usually about second-rate writers." - Patrick Kavanagh

"We are more prone to generalize the bad than the good. We assume that the bad is more potent and contagious." - Eric Hoffer

"An idea is always a generalization, and generalization is a property of thinking. To generalize means to think." - Georg Hegel

See more famous quotes about Generalizations

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Forming general propositions from particular cases or clinical signs.

Random House Word Menu:

categories related to 'generalization'

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Random House Word Menu by Stephen Glazier
For a list of words related to generalization, see:
  • Logic - generalization: proposition applying to all members of certain class of things or indefinite portion of that class
  • Reason and Rationale - generalization: general inference derived from particular


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A generalization (or generalisation) of a concept is an extension of the concept to less-specific criteria. It is a foundational element of logic and human reasoning.[citation needed] Generalizations posit the existence of a domain or set of elements, as well as one or more common characteristics shared by those elements. As such, it is the essential basis of all valid deductive inferences. The process of verification is necessary to determine whether a generalization holds true for any given situation.

The concept of generalization has broad application in many related disciplines, sometimes having a specialized context- meaning.

Of any two related concepts, such as A and B, A is considered a "generalization" of concept B if and only if:

  • every instance of concept B is also an instance of concept A; and
  • there are instances of concept A which are not instances of concept B.

For instance, animal is a generalization of bird because every bird is an animal, and there are animals which are not birds (dogs, for instance). (See also: specialization).

Contents

Hypernym and hyponym

This kind of generalization versus specialization (or particularization) is reflected in the mirror of the contrasting words hypernym and hyponym. A hypernym as a generic stands for a class or group of equally-ranked items such as tree does for peach and oak; or ship for cruiser and steamer. Whereas a hyponym is one of the items included in the generic, such as peach and oak are included in tree, and cruiser and steamer in ship, "brother" and "sister" in "family". A hypernym is superordinate to a hyponym, and a hyponym is subordinate to a hypernym.

Examples

Biological generalization

Diagram
When the mind makes a generalization, it extracts the essence of a concept based on its analysis of similarities from many discrete objects. The resulting simplification enables higher-level thinking.

An animal is a generalization of a mammal, a bird, etc.[vague]

Cartographic generalization of geo-spatial data

Generalization has a long history in cartography as an art of creating maps for different scale and purpose. Cartographic generalization is the process of selecting and representing information of a map in a way that adapts to the scale of the display medium of the map. In this way, every map has, to some extent, been generalized to match the criteria of display. This includes small-scale maps, which cannot convey every detail of the real world. Cartographers must decide and then adjust the content within their maps to create a suitable and useful map that conveys geospatial information within their representation of the world.

Generalization is meant to be context-specific. That is to say, correctly generalized maps are those that emphasize the most important map elements while still representing the world in the most faithful and recognizable way. The level of detail and importance in what is remaining on the map must outweigh the insignificance of items that were generalized, as to preserve the distinguishing characteristics of what makes the map useful and important.

Geometric generalizations

A polygon is a generalization of a 3-sided triangle, a 4-sided quadrilateral, and so on to n sides. A hypercube is a generalization of a 2-dimensional square, a 3-dimensional cube, and so on to n dimensions.

See also


Translations:

Generalization

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Dansk (Danish)
n. - generalisering, generalisation, almindelig udbredelse

Nederlands (Dutch)
generalisatie

Français (French)
n. - généralisation

Deutsch (German)
n. - Generalisierung, Verallgemeinerung

Ελληνική (Greek)
n. - γενίκευση

Italiano (Italian)
generalizzazione

Português (Portuguese)
n. - generalização (f)

Русский (Russian)
обобщение

Español (Spanish)
n. - generalización

Svenska (Swedish)
n. - generalisering

中文(简体)(Chinese (Simplified))
一般化, 概括, 普遍化

中文(繁體)(Chinese (Traditional))
n. - 一般化, 概括, 普遍化

한국어 (Korean)
n. - 귀납법의 결과

日本語 (Japanese)
n. - 一般化, 一般論, 概括的な推論

العربيه (Arabic)
‏(الاسم) تعميم‏

עברית (Hebrew)
n. - ‮הכללה‬


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continuous geometry (mathematics)