Composition fallacy description – UGC NET Question

The fallacy of composition occurs when one concludes that because each part of a whole has some property, the whole itself must also have that property. This ignores how components may interact or combine in ways that change the overall characteristics. Logical scrutiny requires considering whether the property is preserved when parts are assembled. Thus the mistaken inference described in the stem is the fallacy of composition.

Option A:
Option A, division, is the complementary error of inferring that each part has a property simply because the whole does. It runs from whole to part rather than from part to whole and so does not fit the stem.

Option B:
Option B is correct because composition captures exactly the part-to-whole misreasoning. For example, from “each player on this team is excellent” it does not automatically follow that “the team is excellent”, since teamwork and strategy also matter.

Option C:
Option C, hasty generalisation, involves drawing a broad conclusion about a population from an insufficient or unrepresentative sample, which is a different type of inferential mistake.

Option D:
Option D, post hoc, concerns erroneous causal inference based on temporal succession, not on part–whole relationships.