Single Idea 7933

[catalogued under 2. Reason / F. Fallacies / 5. Fallacy of Composition]

Full Idea

The fallacy of composition makes the erroneous assumption that every property of the things that constitute a thing is a property of the thing as well. But every large object is constituted by small parts, and every red object by colourless parts.

Gist of Idea

Don't assume that a thing has all the properties of its parts

Source

Cynthia Macdonald (Varieties of Things [2005], Ch.5)

Book Reference

Macdonald,Cynthia: 'Varieties of Things' [Blackwell 2005], p.85


A Reaction

There are nice questions here like 'If you add lots of smallness together, why don't you get extreme smallness?' Colours always make bad examples in such cases (see Idea 5456). Distinctions are needed here (e.g. Idea 7007).

Related Idea

Idea 7007 I think of properties as simultaneously dispositional and qualitative [Heil]