Consider the following argument:
Epidemiologist: Every individual community health clinic in the province operated below its projected budget during the recent regional health initiative. Therefore, the province's overall public health network as a whole must have spent less than its total allocated budget for the initiative.
Evaluate the following statement:
The epidemiologist's argument is vulnerable to criticism because it commits an Error of Composition by inferring that an attribute true of each individual part of a system must also be true of the system as a whole.
Answer: Answer
Answer
The statement is True.
The statement accurately characterizes the logical vulnerability of the argument. The author moves from a premise concerning every individual clinic (the parts) to a conclusion about the entire public health network (the whole). Because total network expenditures may include overarching administrative costs not captured in local clinic budgets, assuming the whole inherits the properties of its parts is an Error of Composition.
Step-by-Step Solution
Key Concept
Error of Composition (Part-to-Whole Fallacy)