456 FALLACIES. 



great men could have been dispensed with. The 

 term ''great men" is distributive in the premisses 

 and collective in the conclusion. 



" Such also," says Archbishop Whately, " is the 

 fallacy which probably operates on most adventurers 

 in lotteries; e. y., 'the gaining of a high prize is no 

 uncommon occurrence; and what is no uncommon 

 occurrence may reasonably be expected ; therefore 

 the gaining of a high prize may reasonably be ex- 

 pected:' the conclusion when applied to the indivi- 

 dual (as in practice it is) must be understood in the 

 sense of ' reasonably expected by a certain individual; 

 therefore for the major premiss to be true, the middle 

 term must be understood to mean, ' no uncommon 

 occurrence to some one particular person ;' whereas 

 for the minor (which has been placed first) to be true, 

 you must understand it of ' no uncommon occurrence 

 to some one or other; ' thus you will have the Fallacy of 

 Composition." 



" This is a Fallacy with which men are extremely 

 apt to deceive themselves; for when a multitude of 

 particulars are presented to the mind, many are too 

 weak or too indolent to take a comprehensive view of 

 them ; but confine their attention to each single point, 

 by turns ; and then decide, infer, and act, accordingly: 

 e.g., the imprudent spendthrift, finding that he is 

 able to afford this, or that, or the other expense, 

 forgets that all of them together will ruin him." The 

 debauchee destroys his health by successive acts of 

 intemperance, because no one of those acts would be 

 of itself sufficient to do him any serious harm. A 

 sick person reasons with himself, "one, and another 

 and another, of my symptoms, do not prove that I 

 have a fatal disease;" and practically concludes that 

 all taken together do not prove it. 



