f n u c c r emein f U 



A PLAUSIBLE FALLACY 205 



said, it still remains certain that the great man could Book in 

 not produce this excess unless the average men 

 were present to carry out his directions ; and the Labour, it is 

 reader will possibly be disposed to argue that the tiaM 

 average men may be as reasonably credited with 

 the whole of the product except that insignificant also ; 

 fraction which the great man could have produced 

 without them, as the great man may be credited 

 with the whole of the product except that which 

 the average men could have produced without him. 



Now this reasoning has a certain fanciful but we cannot 



, ., ... . . 111 i -i /- draw any con- 



plausibility, but it is absolutely devoid of any elusions from 

 practical meaning ; and in order to show the 

 reader how and why it is so, it will be necessary mg ; 

 to direct his attention to a certain fact which lies 

 at the bottom of all practical reasoning, but which 

 few practical reasoners ever consciously realise. 

 All such reasoning is in its nature hypothetical, 

 and can be reduced to a statement that if such 

 conditions are present, such consequences will 

 result ; and that if existing conditions be altered 

 in any specified way, the results will exhibit a 

 specified and corresponding difference. If, however, 

 this reasoning is to have any practical value, one 

 thing is essential to it namely, that the supposed 

 alterations shall be at least approximately possible. 

 No practical conclusion, for instance, could possibly 

 be drawn as to machinery by considering what 

 would happen if the properties of the circle were 

 to be changed, and different parts of the circum- 

 ference should be at different distances from the 



