the.com/fallacy of composition
True of each part, therefore true of the whole — the logic equivalent of tripping over your own feet.
means The mistaken assumption that something true of the individual pieces must automatically hold for the entire group or system they form.
from From Latin fallacia, 'deception,' plus compositio, 'a putting together.' The term belongs to the old vocabulary of logical fallacies catalogued by philosophers sorting the ways arguments go wrong — composition's partner-in-crime being the fallacy of division, which runs the mistake in reverse, assuming what's true of the whole must be true of each part. The classic illustration: a single fan standing up at a stadium sees better, but if everyone stands, no one gains anything — true for one, false for all.
- classic example
- one fan stands up, sees better; everyone stands, nobody does
- economics trap
- saving more helps you, ruins the economy if all do
- opposite error
- fallacy of division, whole's traits wrongly assigned to parts
- sneaky because
- each step sounds perfectly reasonable on its own