What is the fallacy of division?

Artículo revisado y aprobado por nuestro equipo editorial, siguiendo los criterios de redacción y edición de YuBrain.

In the discussion and foundation of ideas and concepts, the fallacy of division is often incurred. A fallacy is an argument that appears true but is actually false. The fallacy of division, specifically, lies in the falsity of the argument in extending a general property of a group to each of its parts. The object of the fallacy can be an entity, a concept, or a group of people. The fallacy of division is the flip side of the fallacy of composition.

The fallacy of division and the fallacy of composition

The fallacy of composition is an argument that is built from generalizing a particular characteristic of an element to the entire set that integrates that element. Conversely, the division fallacy is constructed by generalizing a characteristic of a group to each of its components. The division fallacy takes the form of:

X has the property P. Therefore, all the parts or components of X have this property P.

Let’s see two examples to fix the idea:

  • “The Colombian judicial system is a fair system. Therefore, the defendant had a fair trial and was not wrongfully convicted.”
  • “The United States is the richest country in the world. Therefore, everyone in the United States is rich.”

Distributive attributes and collective attributes

It is possible to establish arguments with the structure of the division fallacy that are valid. For example:

  • “All dogs are from the canidae family . Therefore, my Labrador belongs to the canidae family.”
  • “All men are mortal. Therefore, Socrates is mortal.

Why in these two examples is the argument valid? Let’s see what is the difference between distributive attributes and collective attributes.

Attributes that are shared by all members of a class or group are called distributive attributes; the attribute is shared among all members and is held by each member by virtue of being a member. The attributes of the set itself, regardless of how it is formed, are called collective attributes; it is an attribute of the group independently of its parts. For example:

  • The stars are big.
  • The stars are numerous.

Each statement assigns the noun star an attribute. In the first case, the large attribute is distributive: it is a quality of each star individually, regardless of whether it is part of a group. In the second sentence, the attribute of the stars is collective; is an attribute of the stars as a set and can only be defined for the group since it is meaningless postulated for each star. No individual star can have the numerous attribute .

This differentiation between distributive attributes and collective attributes explains why arguments with the structure of a division fallacy can be correct. If the argument concerns a distributive attribute, the set attribute generalizes to each part. It is a property of each dog to belong to the family canidae , and that attribute extends to dogs as a whole. In contrast, a collective attribute does not imply that it is valid for each member. That the United States is the richest country is an attribute of the whole, it is collective; It does not imply that each inhabitant is.

A common way of applying the fallacy of division is known as guilt by association . Many situations that are morally questionable or that violate fundamental rights, whose responsibility corresponds to institutions, organizations or human groups with a political, ethnic or religious identity, are also usually attributed to each of their members. Under this fallacy, each member of the group is responsible for the sole reason of belonging to the group.

Sources

  • Downden, Bradley. What is a failure? Internet Encyclopedia of Philosophy, iep.utm.edu/fallacy/. Consulted in July 2021.
  • Logical fallacies, xtec.cat/~lvallmaj/preso/fal-log2.htm. Consulted in July 2021.
  • Gambra, Jose Miguel. The place of fallacies in logic . revistas.ucm.es/index.php/RESF/article/viewFile/RESF8788110007A/12292

Sergio Ribeiro Guevara (Ph.D.)
Sergio Ribeiro Guevara (Ph.D.)
(Doctor en Ingeniería) - COLABORADOR. Divulgador científico. Ingeniero físico nuclear.

Artículos relacionados