(c) “Wanted a piano by a young lady made of mahogany.”
_This fallacy springs from placing undue emphasis on some word or group of words._ Naturally such accentuation may convey a meaning entirely foreign to the author’s intent. Newspapers are guilty of this fallacy when they select a few words from a speech and use them as headlines without further explanation. A politician may quote a sentence uttered by an opponent and fail to relate it to what preceded or followed. A cartoonist may arouse the prejudice of public opinion by giving ridiculous emphasis to some idiosyncracy possessed by the subject of his attack.
(a) “Thou shalt not bear false witness against thy _neighbor_.”
By giving undue emphasis to _neighbor_, the notion is clearly conveyed that one may bear false witness against all who are _not_ neighbors.
(b) “You must not crib when taking _my_ examinations.”
“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.”
(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.”
_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.”