You’re probably talking about the “fallacy of composition”. This logical fallacy occurs when it’s assumed that what is true for individual parts will also be true for the whole group or system. It’s a mistaken belief that specific attributes of individual components must necessarily be reflected in the larger structure or collection they are part of.
Here are some clearly flawed examples illustrating the fallacy of composition.
Building Strength: Believing that if a single brick can hold a certain amount of weight, a wall made of these bricks can hold the same amount of weight per brick. This ignores the structural integrity and distribution of weight in a wall.
Athletic Team: Assuming that a sports team will be unbeatable because it has a few star athletes. This ignores the importance of teamwork, strategy, and the fact that the performance of a team is not just the sum of its individual players’ skills.
These examples highlight the danger of oversimplifying complex systems or groups by extrapolating from individual components. They show that the interactions and dynamics within a system play a crucial role in determining the overall outcome, and these interactions can’t be understood by just looking at individual parts in isolation.
Let’s ask GPT4!