Types of Generalities in Principles of Jurisprudence

Muslim logicians and the scholars of jurisprudential principles have identified several types of generalities and named them as "false generality", "summation generality", and "exhaustive generality". In this article, we intend to compile as per our capacity the viewpoints of the legal theorists and analyze them with a historic-analytic discourse. First, we study the historical background of the issue in the works of the Muslim logicians and early legal theorists. In this period, types of generalities have neither a well-established terminology nor accurate definitions. In the second period, which starts from the time of Shaykh Bahā’ī and continues to the present time, the situation is totally different, and many definitions, discussions, and disputations concerning types of generalities take place. In this article, we will report on these definitions, disputations, and their categorizing, and in some cases we will judge between the disputing parties.