fallacy of composition

English

Noun

fallacy of composition (plural fallacies of composition)

1. A presumption that if something is true of part(s) of a whole, then it is true of the whole itself.
   • 1996 March 29, Noël Carroll, Theorizing the Moving Image, Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, →ISBN, →OL, page 229:

     A theorist who moves from the putative fact that every shot in a given nonfiction film represents a personal point-of-view to the conclusion that every nonfiction film is a personal vision commits the fallacy of composition.

   • 2012, “Conclusion: Psychology, Neuroscience, and Economics”, in David K. Levine, editor, Is Behavioral Economics Doomed?: The Ordinary versus the Extraordinary, Cambridge: Open Book Publishers, →ISBN, →OL, page 127:

     There is a small segment of the psychology literature that effectively commits a fallacy of composition, reasoning that if we can explain individual behavior, then this carries over immediately to the group.

   • 2013 August 5, Richard E. Creel, Philosophy of Religion: The Basics, Wiley Blackwell:

     The cosmological argument, according to Edwards, commits the fallacy of composition because it assumes that because each part of the universe is caused that therefore the universe as a whole must have a cause, but that doesn't take into account the possibility of an infinite regress of events.

Antonyms

• fallacy of division

See also

• spotlight fallacy