faith in chaos Posted February 10, 2009 Report Share Posted February 10, 2009 John Stuart Mill makes the argument: (p1) I desire my happiness (p2) You desire your happiness _____________________ (c1) We desire our happiness I know this is false, but the name of the fallacy has escaped me. Can anyone help me out on this? Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Clockwork Posted February 10, 2009 Report Share Posted February 10, 2009 A Fallacy of Ambiguity, or some kind of Non-Sequitur Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
softwareNerd Posted February 10, 2009 Report Share Posted February 10, 2009 What does "our" mean in the conclusion "We desire our happiness"? If it means "our own", then it's fine. If it means, "each others" then it does not follow. [Formally, I think it would be a fallacy of introducing a new term.] Even the valid interpretation above only holds if "we" means the "I" and the "you" named by the two premises. If it actually means "all people", then it does not hold. [Formally, it would be a hasty generalization.] Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Old Toad Posted February 10, 2009 Report Share Posted February 10, 2009 John Stuart Mill makes the argument: (p1) I desire my happiness (p2) You desire your happiness _____________________ (c1) We desire our happiness I know this is false, but the name of the fallacy has escaped me. Can anyone help me out on this? I think this is a fallacy of ambiguity, and more particularly, it is classified as a "distributive fallacy" regarding composition. "The argument moves from a claim about the distributive sense of a class (i.e. each of the parts taken separately) to a claim about the collective sense of a class (i.e. the class taken as a whole)." Cite: Bruce Thompson's Fallacy Page http://www.cuyamaca.edu/brucethompson/Fall...composition.asp Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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