“I may say, as a side remark, that the labor unions are guilty of developing a nation of shirks, when they prohibit a phenomenally efficient workman from doing his best.” “I do not wish to be misunderstood in this.” “I believe in labor unions but in this particular they are dead wrong.”
What the newspaper reported.
(Headline) “The Labor Union Scored as a Training School for Shirks.” “———— said in his speech in ———— Hall that the Union was responsible for the development of a nation of shirks.” “A good man,” said he, “is not permitted to do his best work.”
(4) Composition.
The fallacy of composition is committed when it is assumed that what is true distributively is likewise true collectively. A term is used in a distributive sense when it is applied to each individual of the class; whereas a term is used in a collective sense when it is applied to the class considered as one whole. “All” meaning each one considered separately and “all” meaning the whole furnishes a frequent pitfall for this fallacy.
ILLUSTRATIONS OF THE FALLACY OF COMPOSITION.
(a) “Every member of the team is a star player; hence I expect that the entire aggregation will be a winner.”
(b) “All the men of the jury are fair minded; therefore we have good reason for supposing that the jury’s verdict will be in accord with the rules of justice.”
(c) “Thirteen and twenty-three are odd numbers; thirty-six is equal to thirteen and twenty-three; hence thirty-six is an odd number.”
(d) “All the angles of a triangle are less than two right angles; hence the angles X, Y and Z are less than two right angles.”