Fallacy of distribution
From Free net encyclopedia
A fallacy of distribution is a logical fallacy occurring when an argument assumes there is no difference between a term in the distributive (referring to every member of a class) and collective (referring to the class itself as a whole) sense.
There are two different kinds of this fallacy:
- Composition - assumes what is true of the members is true of the class
- Division - assumes what is true of the class is true of its members
While fallacious, arguments that make these assumptions may be persuasive because of the representativeness heuristic.
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