Which fallacy occurs when someone refers to a few instances to support a broad claim, such as saying "just look at our past wins"?

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The fallacy occurring when someone refers to a few instances to support a broad claim is known as Selected Instances. This fallacy arises when a person takes a limited number of examples—often favorable ones—and generalizes based on those examples without considering the whole picture or the possibility of exceptions.

In the context of the statement "just look at our past wins," this implies that the speaker is referencing specific instances of success (the wins) to suggest that future outcomes will similarly be positive. However, this approach fails to account for a potential range of outcomes, including losses or failures, which might provide a more comprehensive understanding of the situation. Relying on selected instances can create a misleading argument rather than a well-rounded, factual assessment.

In contrast, the other terms refer to different logical constructs: Composition pertains to the assumption that what is true for a part must be true for the whole, while Faulty Analogy deals with erroneous comparisons. No Technique suggests a lack of a logical construct, which doesn’t apply in this case. Thus, Selected Instances aptly describes the fallacy present in the statement.

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