by Austin Cline
Austin Cline, a former regional director for the Council for Secular Humanism, writes and lectures extensively about atheism and agnosticism.
Updated July 22, 2017
In critical thinking, we often come across statements that fall victim to the fallacy of division. This common logical fallacy refers to an attribution placed onto an entire class, assuming that each part has the same property as the whole. These can be physical objects, concepts, or groups of people.
By grouping elements of a whole together and assuming that every piece automatically has a certain attribute, we are often stating a false argument. This falls into the category of a fallacy of grammatical analogy. It can apply to many arguments and statements we make, including the debate over religious beliefs.
Explanation of the Fallacy of Division
The fallacy of division is similar to the fallacy of composition but in reverse. This fallacy involves someone taking an attribute of a whole or a class and assuming that it must also necessarily be true of each part or member.
The fallacy of division takes the form of:
X has property P. Therefore, all parts (or members) of X have this property P.
Examples and Discussion of the Fallacy of Division
Here are some obvious examples of the Fallacy of Division:
The United States is the richest country in the world. Therefore, everyone in the United States must be rich and live well.
Because professional sports players are paid outrageous salaries, every professional sports player must be rich.
The American judicial system is a fair system. Therefore, the defendant got a fair trial and was not executed unfairly.
Just as with the fallacy of composition, it is possible to create similar arguments which are valid. Here are some examples:
All dogs are from the canidae family. Therefore, my Doberman is from the canidae family.
All men are mortal. Therefore, Socrates is mortal.
Why are these last examples valid arguments? The difference is between distributive and collective attributes.
Attributes which are shared by all members of a class are called distributive because the attribute is distributed among all members by virtue of being a member. Attributes which are created only by bringing together the right parts in the right way are called collective. This is because it is an attribute of a collection, rather than of the individuals.
These examples will illustrate the difference:
Stars are large.
Stars are numerous.
Each statement modifies the word stars with an attribute. In the first, the attribute large is distributive. It is a quality held by each star individually, regardless of whether it is in a group or not. In the second sentence, the attribute numerous is collective. It is an attribute of the entire group of stars and only exists because of the collection. No individual star can have the attribute "numerous."
This demonstrates a primary reason why so many arguments like this are fallacious. When we bring things together, they can often result in a whole which has new properties unavailable to the parts individually. This is what is often meant by the phrase "the whole is more than the sum of the parts."
Just because atoms put together in a certain way constitutes a living dog does not mean that all atoms are living - or that the atoms are themselves dogs, either.
Religion and the Fallacy of Division
Atheists often encounter the fallacy of division when debating religion and science. Sometimes, they may be guilty of using it themselves:
Christianity has done many evil things in its history. Therefore, all Christians are evil and nasty.
One common way of using the fallacy of division is known as "guilt by association." This is clearly illustrated in the example above. Some nasty characteristic is attributed to an entire group of people - political, ethnic, religious, etc. It is then concluded that some particular member of that group (or every member) should be held responsible for whatever nasty things we have come up with. They are, therefore, labeled guilty due to their association with that group.
While it's uncommon for atheists to state this particular argument in such a direct manner, many atheists have made similar arguments. If not spoken, it's not unusual for atheists to behave as if they believed this argument were true.
Here is a slightly more complicated example of the fallacy of division which is often used by creationists:
Unless each cell in your brain is capable of consciousness and thinking, then the consciousness and thinking in your brain cannot be explained by matter alone.
It doesn't look like the other examples, but it is still the fallacy of division - it's just been hidden. We can see it better if we more clearly state the hidden premise:
If your (material) brain is capable of consciousness, then each cell of your brain must be capable of consciousness. But we know that each cell of your brain does not possess consciousness. Therefore, your (material) brain itself cannot be the source of your consciousness.
This argument presumes that if something is true of the whole, then it must be true of the parts. Because it is not true that each cell in your brain is individually capable of consciousness, the argument concludes that there must be something more involved - something other than material cells.
Consciousness, therefore, must come from something other than the material brain. Otherwise, the argument would lead to a true conclusion.
Yet, once we realize that the argument contains a fallacy, we no longer have a reason to assume that consciousness is caused by something else. It would be like using this argument:
Unless each part of a car is capable of self-propulsion, then self-propulsion in a car cannot be explained by the material car-parts alone.
No intelligent person would ever think to use or accept this argument, but it's structurally similar to the consciousness example.
++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++
Every year
millions of Americans find themselves unable to vote because they miss a
registration deadline, don’t update their registration, or aren’t sure how to
register.
Our partners at Vote Forward have made it easy to contact historically under-represented, not-yet-registered voters living in key 2020 swing states to provide them with everything they need to register to vote.
Click the link to set up an account or sign in, then scroll down to the second row of options and choose one of the campaigns that includes voter registration forms.
+++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++
Our partners at Vote Forward have made it easy to contact historically under-represented, not-yet-registered voters living in key 2020 swing states to provide them with everything they need to register to vote.
Click the link to set up an account or sign in, then scroll down to the second row of options and choose one of the campaigns that includes voter registration forms.
+++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++
air
gapping
|
| Air
gapping is a security measure that involves physically isolating a
computer or network to prevent it from connecting directly or wirelessly to
other systems that can connect to the Internet. Air gapping is used to
protect many types of critical systems, including those that support the
stock market, the military, the government and industrial power industries.
To prevent unauthorized data extrusion
through electromagnetic or electronic exploits, there must be a specified
amount of space between the air-gapped system and outside walls and between
its wires and the wires for other technical equipment. In the United States,
the U.S. National Security Agency TEMPEST project provides best practices for
using air gaps as a security measure.
For a system with extremely sensitive data,
a Faraday cage can be used to prevent electromagnetic radiation (EMR) escaping
from the air-gapped equipment. Although such measures may seem extreme, van
Eck phreaking can be used to intercept data such as key strokes or screen
images from demodulated EMR waves, using special equipment from some distance
away. Other proof-of-concept (POC) attacks for air- gapped systems have shown
that electromagnetic emanations from infected sound cards on isolated
computers can be exploited and continuous wave irradiation can be used to
reflect and gather information from isolated screens, keyboards and other
computer components.
As of this writing, the Defense Advanced
Research Projects Agency (DARPA) is awarding grants for prototype hardware
and software designs that will keep sensitive data physically isolated. The
grants are made possible under the Guaranteed Architecture for Physical
Security (GAPS) program.
Enhancing air-gapped security
measures
The problem with physical separation as a
security technique is that, as complexity increases in some system or network
to be isolated, so does the likelihood that some unknown or unauthorized
external connection will arise.
Perhaps the most important way to protect a
computing device or network from an air gap attack is through end user
security awareness training. The infamous Stuxnet worm, which was designed to
attack air-gapped industrial control systems, is thought to have been
introduced by infected thumb drives found by employees or obtained as free
giveaways.
The software-defined
perimeter (SDP) framework is another tool network engineers can use to create
a type of "virtual air gapping" through policy enforcement. SDP
requires external endpoints that want to access internal infrastructure to
comply with authentication policies and ensures that only authenticated
systems can see internal IP addresses. |
The following is an except from my first book which addresses angry email replies.
Enjoy the article and check out the website!
==================================================
======================
For a great satire on email, please see the following:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=HTgYHHKs0Zwscoop_post=bcaa0440-2548-11e5-c1bd-90b11c3d2b20&__scoop_topic=2455618
===============================================
Good Netiquette And A Green Internet To All!
Special Bulletin - My just released book,
"You're Hired. Super Charge our Email Skills in 60 Minutes! (And Get That Job...)
is now on sales at Amazon.com
Great Reasons for Purchasing Netiquette IQ
·
Get more
email opens. Improve 100% or more.
·
Receive
more responses, interviews, appointments, prospects and sales.
·
Be better
understood.
·
Eliminate
indecision.
·
Avoid
being spammed 100% or more.
·
Have
recipient finish reading your email content.
·
Save time
by reducing questions.
·
Increase
your level of clarity.
·
Improve
you time management with your email.
·
Have
quick access to a wealth of relevant email information.
Enjoy
most of what you need for email in a single book.
=================================
**Important note** - contact our company for very powerful solutions for IPmanagement (IPv4 and IPv6, security, firewall and APT solutions:
www.tabularosa.net
==================================================
Another Special Announcement - Tune in to my radio interview, on Rider University's station, www.1077thebronc.com I discuss my recent book, above on "Your Career Is Calling", hosted by Wanda Ellett.
In addition to this blog, Netiquette IQ
has a website with great
assets which are being added to on a regular basis. I have authored the
premiere book on Netiquette, “Netiquette IQ - A Comprehensive Guide to
Improve,
Enhance and Add Power to Your Email". My new book, “You’re Hired! Super
Charge
Your Email Skills in 60 Minutes. . . And Get That Job!” has just been
published and will be followed by a trilogy of books on Netiquette for
young people. You can view my
profile, reviews of the book and content excerpts at:www.amazon.com/author/paulbabicki
In addition to this blog, I maintain a radio show on BlogtalkRadio and an online newsletter via paper.li.I have established Netiquette discussion groups with Linkedin and Yahoo. I am also a member of the International Business Etiquette and Protocol Group and Minding Manners among others. I regularly consult for the Gerson Lehrman Group, a worldwide network of subject matter experts and I have been contributing to the blogs Everything Email and emailmonday . My work has appeared in numerous publications and I have presented to groups such as The Breakfast Club of NJ and PSG of Mercer County, NJ.
I am the president of Tabula Rosa Systems,
a “best of breed” reseller of products for communications, email,
network management software, security products and professional
services. Also, I am the president of Netiquette IQ. We are currently developing an email IQ rating system, Netiquette IQ, which promotes the fundamentals outlined in my book.
Over the past twenty-five years, I have enjoyed a dynamic and successful career and have attained an extensive background in IT and electronic communications by selling and marketing within the information technology marketplace.Anyone who would like to review the book and have it posted on my blog or website, please contact me paul@netiquetteiq.com.
=============================================================
