Singular and General Statements

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Hello everyone! I just started a Philo class and it is bumming my brains out as I'm a Math major and Philo is a whole different ballgame. Anyway, we are supposed to classify statements as being either Singular or General. If the statement is General, we further have to classify it to be either Scientific or Metaphysical. From what I understand, Singular statements can be proved or disproved while general statements are usually scientific ones and with variables involved (this is the part where I'm really confused!)

Here are the examples given to us for our graded recitation tomorrow. I have attempted to answer them but I'm not sure if they're correct.Hope you could help me out. Thank you!

1. DNA is the hereditary material - Singular

2. Humans represent the only intelligent life in the universe - General MEtaphysical

3. Swansea Bay is polluted - Singular

4. Natural selection results in survival of the fittest - General Scientific

5. Marine oil spills cause pollution - General Scientific

6. David Cameron is prime minister of the UK - Singular

7. Dolphins are highly intelligent - general metaphysical

8. The genetic code is universal - general scientific

9. All religions are equal - general metaphysical

10. There are 100 people in this room - singular

11. Caffeine harms the body - general scientific

12. Water freezes at zero centigrade - singular

13. All birds can fly - General scientific

14. The universe is 4 billion years old - singular

15. The heart pumps blood around the body - singular

16. It rained in Swansea yesterday - singular

17. x2 = y2 + z2 - general scientific

18. Smoking causes cancer - general scientific

19. All smokers get cancer - general scientific

20. Chelsea will win the league this year - general metaphysical

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@iamcoolwaters,

Hi i'm a 12 year old honors student and I say your answers are correct and you should do fine having done similar assignments myself.

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@iamcoolwaters,

I'm not going to comment so much on this, but there was one thing that caught my eye, and that was this:

Quote:

14. The universe is 4 billion years old - singular

I would call that general and metaphysical. You would probably get away with singular, but there is room for debate here.
One could argue that the universe itself is a metaphysical phenomenon, and the statement that the universe is "4 billion years old" is not in itself a scientific fact. It is a metaphysical interpretation of many scientific facts.

I don't know, but maybe bringing this up can earn you some extra points. It does raise the issue of the distinction between scientific and metaphysical, as the two are by no means clearly separated from each other.
And if we are to believe the most recent work in unified field theory, there is an even closer link between the metaphysical and the scientific that ever assumed before.

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Singular and General Statements

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