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Question:Mistaking a part of a whole for the whole itself. What fallacy is this? That is, if someone mistook a quality peculiar to a piece of fruit for a quality peculiar to the bowel of fruit. ("This orange is delicious/orange, therefore the bowel of fruit is delicious/orange.")


Best Answer - Chosen by Asker: Mistaking a part of a whole for the whole itself. What fallacy is this? That is, if someone mistook a quality peculiar to a piece of fruit for a quality peculiar to the bowel of fruit. ("This orange is delicious/orange, therefore the bowel of fruit is delicious/orange.")

That is referred to as the 'fallacy of composition'.

Assuming that a property of a part of something is a property of the whole it is a part of.

Example: You can't hurt an atom with a knife, so therefore you can't hurt a human with a knife because humans are made of atoms.

I prefer a bowl of fruit to a bowel of fruit. You follow your tatse, and I'll follow mine.

You seem to make a good point, but I would say its more like this orange is delicious compared to the the bowl of fruit. Only because not everything is made the same, so in a way, it can't be the same thing even in its entirety. Or so it seems to me.