Probability, Generality, Propensity

A true theory is a theory that is almost always true approximately the same “percentage^[1]” of the time.
For example, a true theory is one that is almost always true approximately ninety-five percent of the time.
For another example, a true theory is one that is almost always true approximately two percent of the time.
More generally, a true theory is any theory that is almost always true approximately the same percentage of the time (irrespective of what that percentage is.)
Any theory that is almost always true approximately the same percentage of the time is a reliable and useful theory (it may even be the best possible theory that there is about its subject matter.)
Accordingly, a generality that almost always has a very high probability of being true or false the same percentage of the time is reliable and useful even though it is subject to exceptions, counter examples, or counterfactuals.
Almost everything, possibly everything, is subject to one or more exceptions, counter examples or counterfactuals.
Generalities are generally true, and they are reliable as such.

M. S. Aman (1942 – )

[1] There are two reasons why the word “percentage” is used to express in one word the numerous degrees of “sometimes” that exist (such as “almost always,“ “about half of the time,” “almost never,” “frequently,” “rarely,” etc.,) and to express the idea that the subject “theory” (the third word of the sentence) is “just about as likely to be true on any one occasion as it is to be true on any other occasion.” First, because using the one word “percentage” is short and simple; second, because the word “percentage” gives some sense or feeling of accuracy, despite being qualified in the sentence by the words “almost” and “approximately.”

The exceptions are a part of the general rule.

Zanaka Scott (1987 – )

An exception, often more than one exception, to a general rule, or to something that is only generally true, does not nullify the fact that the general rule or general truth nonetheless continues to be generally valid. But in the world today the vast majority of people are misguided in that they think that a counter-example, a counter-factual, an exception to a general rule or general truth, or to a regularity or propensity, nullifies it and makes it of little or no importance, even though it remains generally valid and true notwithstanding the counter-examples, counter-factuals and exceptions. Members of that vast majority who think in that misguided way are usually fixated on certainty—most often they only want to find and only want to rely on absolutes. They want something to be always true or to be never true; and if it’s not “always” and absolute they erroneously treat the general rule, general truth, regularity or propensity as if it were not reliable, not to be acted upon, and not important. They are fault-finders. They are often so extreme as to be willing to entirely disregard what is generally true and obvious, simply because they have found or imagined an exception, any exception, even if it is a minor exception, de minimis, or purely conceptual, even if it has never yet been found to exist in the physical world . . . sometimes even when the exception is in fact preposterous. They are unaware of the fact that almost nothing is absolutely, always or never true or false. They have failed to learn and most likely have not been taught that almost everything is at most generally, probably or likely true or false. And, they fail to appreciate the importance and reliability of regularities which are not absolutes. They are fault-finders, suffering from an “absolute” disease of the mind.

Esteban de Martino (1813 – 1911)

Each case is the exception.

Addaitu Ling (c. 1930 – )

Most true statements are always true some of the time.
Sometimes they are more often true, sometimes less often.
Probability (sometimes referred to as “propensity”)
is a basic condition of the world.

Ernesto Unochesa (1877 – 1940)

Absolutes and certainty often lead you astray.
Probability and the propensity of things usually show you the way.
Right and wrong, and good and bad, are generally merely ideas that you think and say:
Because almost everything is only sometimes and shades of gray.

A. Longgrin (1942 – )

Opinions, judgments and beliefs about whether something exists in reality in the physical world (as an object, wave, force, or particle) are the only opinions, judgments and beliefs that can be true or false and that may be capable of being proved or disproved. We will call those opinions, judgments and beliefs “real-physical” opinions, judgments and beliefs.

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Opinions, judgments, and beliefs that are not “real- physical” opinions, judgments and beliefs, which do not exist in reality in the physical world as an object, wave, force or particle (such as those which are subjective opinions, judgments and beliefs about right and wrong, good and bad, better and worse, and about morals, ethics, values, theology and esthetics) cannot be true or false and can not be proved or disproved. We will call those opinions, judgments and beliefs “non-physical” opinions, judgments and beliefs. “Non-physical” opinions, judgments and beliefs are merely personal opinions, personal judgments, and personal beliefs that are fictions of the imagination, mental constructs that are created by and that exist only in the mind. And that is so even when “non-physical” opinions, judgments and beliefs are logical, and even when they appear to be “proved” logically, because other than being internally consistent in some logical system, logic does not make any “non-physical” opinion, judgment or belief true or false as a matter of fact: And that is so because logic is merely a mental construct that is a fiction of the imagination.

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Therefore, only “real-physical” opinions, judgments and beliefs about whether something exists in reality in the physical world may be capable of being proved or disproved to be true or to be false as a matter of fact; and “non-physical” opinions, judgments and beliefs (such as all of those relating to values, morals, ethics, esthetics, theology, right, wrong, good, bad, better and worse) — although they may sometimes be useful, necessary and desirable — are nonetheless not capable of being factually proved to be true or false and can not be proved or disproved as a matter of fact.

Felice Realtà (1987 – )

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