Critical Thinking: The Fallacy of Composition

Critical Thinking, Logic, and Argumentation (ReasonIO)

Просмотров 8 тыс.

% 175

This video is designed to help students, lifelong learners and professionals understand the Fallacy of Composition -- a common mistake in reasoning and argument.
In this video, I discuss what the fallacy is, map out its basic structure, point out what goes wrong with reasoning in the fallacy, examine three easy-to-understand examples, and give you advice about how to spot and avoid the fallacy.
This is part of a whole series of videos discussing common fallacies. To see the whole series, you can click here: ru-vid.com/group/PLy91AvVMEx_9q5dUC_w2AFzaS-qBN3mEg
Intro music is RU-vid's public domain mp3, "Keep It Tight," by John Deley.
Gregory B. Sadler is the president and co-founder of ReasonIO. The content of this video is provided here as part of ReasonIO's mission of putting philosophy into practice -- making complex philosophical texts and thinkers accessible for students and lifelong learners. If you'd like to make a contribution to help fund Dr. Sadler's ongoing educational projects, you can click here: www.paypal.com/cgi-bin/webscr?cmd=_s-xclick&hosted_button_id=SKHK76Z5HFPA8

Опубликовано:

31 окт 2014

Ссылка:

Скачать:

Готовим ссылку...

Добавить в:

Мой плейлист

Посмотреть позже

Комментарии : 27

@emil6669 Год назад

Thank you for this series. I am enjoying them and learning new things. The 3rd example about the car reminds me of the Ship of Theseus Paradox.

@reasoniocritthinking 10 лет назад

First of what will eventually be 50+ videos on specific informal fallacies -- this one focusing on mistaken inferences about groups of wholes based on what we can say about their parts

@praskovyakrylova1712 6 лет назад

I don't understand the car argument, if its every part is replaced by new parts, then that should be a new car right?

@TylireousGaming 4 года назад

@@praskovyakrylova1712 It's a [Ship of Theseus] paradox because technically yes it's a new car: all original pieces have been switched out, but it's the same car because the switched pieces were identical newer copies of the original design.

@Fabbydabbydoozy 9 лет назад

I am really enjoying these videos Greg, thanks for creating them. Have you considered extracting the audio only and making it downloadable? As in, like a podcast? It's the sort of thing I'd like to listen to while doing something - such as driving etc.

@reasoniocritthinking 9 лет назад

Fabbydabbydoozy I don't see why I couldn't do that -- but would it be interesting enough, and make sense, without the visual slides?

@Fabbydabbydoozy 9 лет назад

Critical Thinking, Logic, and Argumentation (ReasonIO) I certainly think so. Maybe that's just me though!

@PitBigGuns 7 лет назад

why did you stop creating/uploading videos for/on this channel?

@reasoniocritthinking 7 лет назад

If you follow my other channel, you'll have some idea just how much content I've been creating elsewhere, and how much time that takes. I've actually decided on adding new videos and building out this channel as a one of my Patreon milestones. If you'd like to check that out or even contribute, here's the link: www.patreon.com/sadler

@MrMarktrumble 9 лет назад

With Plato’s triparte division of soul and polus, is it a fallacy of composition to either attribute to the state the integrity that properly belongs to an individual, or conversely, to attribute to the individual the integrity that would belong to the state, or to say the integrity as a form is beyond both individuals and state and is one and the same in both?

@reasoniocritthinking 9 лет назад

In a word, No. He's drawing an analogy, not asserting a strict identity.

@countspamolot 8 лет назад

So would a good example of reasoning by composition be, my toaster has mass because all of its parts have mass? Is this a fallacy or would this be a good example of valid reasoning from composition?

@reasoniocritthinking 8 лет назад

+Ferinus It's only a fallacy if the whole doesn't have the quality shared or contributed by the parts

@jadwiga0700 8 лет назад

+Critical Thinking, Logic, and Argumentation (ReasonIO) but what if whole has it but we infer it only from composition? We can say that free will is false because atoms don't have free will. It is fallacy for me. But if it turned out that we indeed don't have free will would it become non fallacy?

@reasoniocritthinking 8 лет назад

+jadwiga0700 It's a fallacy when one concludes something about the whole from the parts, when the parts and the whole don't actually share the same quality or property. The claim involved is that because the parts have the property, the whole does. In the specific example, I don't see how, even if we were to lack free will, whether atoms possessed it or not, would be relevant. So, it seems like it would still be poor reasoning.

@enkeltbekkasin 9 лет назад

11:20 If _all_ the parts were switched out with _new_ parts within a week, the car as a whole would have been new, even if it was an old model. The fallacy is with the car dealer, who also has an incentive for arguing that the car is old, so that it is not worth as much, should you try to sell it. It is easier to see if all the parts were switched out at the same time, with new parts. Then you would essentially switch out your car with a brand new car (of the same model). The car would be new, regardless of what year was printed on it. You actually describe the mistake at 13:15. You go from the parts to describe the whole. If all the parts are new, then the whole is new.

@sophiya4715 7 лет назад

i donot understand this example.?

@michaelknight4041 10 месяцев назад

No donut for you!

@sophiya4715 7 лет назад

thanks a lot sir.

@reasoniocritthinking 7 лет назад

You're welcome!

@Greatefull0101 9 дней назад

Anyone from Kurdistna?

@tehdii 10 лет назад

If we meet an honest and intelligent politician, a dozen, a hundred, we say that they aren't like politicians at all, and our category of politician stays unchanged; we know what politicians are like. "The Intellectual in America" (1955), from A Sad Heart at the Supermarket (1962) :)

@reasoniocritthinking 10 лет назад

It's unfortunate, but I also hear something like that about my own profession -- professor

@welaughatstupidshit 9 лет назад

9:35 - Armageddon comes to mind.

@reasoniocritthinking 9 лет назад

How so?

@welaughatstupidshit 9 лет назад

Critical Thinking, Logic, and Argumentation (ReasonIO) just to be clear, I meant the film - not the "event". You describe in that chunk basically what the plot of Michael Bay's Armageddon was. They put together the "world's best drillers" to drill on the asteroid, lol yet they did not foresee each individual's nuances that did not make that team exactly work in a cohesive fashion.

@reasoniocritthinking 9 лет назад

welaughatstupidshit Yes, that works as an example!