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When to claim assembly failure and when not to claim it

שו”תCategory: philosophyWhen to claim assembly failure and when not to claim it
asked 7 years ago

Hello Rabbi,
I wanted to ask when is it correct to claim that a certain claim fails in assembly and when is it not?
For example, an argument that claims that each brick weighs little and therefore the entire wall weighs little is clearly incorrect and fails in this fallacy.
But sometimes the generality does indeed preserve the character and quality of the individual, for example if the wall is made of bricks, then it is a brick wall (with mortar) and it does not suddenly become rubbery.
When is this claim made and when is it not made? Does the Rabbi have any rule of thumb regarding this matter?


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מיכי Staff answered 7 years ago
I have a rule of thumb that I’m not sure will be very useful. It comes from Aristotle. A qualitative feature of the individual also characterizes the rule that is built from such specifications. A quantitative feature varies. This is his definition of quality (where in culture quantity does not vary, it is quality). But of course this does not give you a useful and independent measure, because now you can ask what quality is.    

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קובי replied 7 years ago

Thanks.
I did think of something like that, but as you said to some extent you just rolled the question back one point’ Is our understanding of how to categorize things actually just due to intuition?
Can it be argued that this fallacy is actually a significant argument in favor of strong armagnetism?

מיכי Staff replied 7 years ago

I can't think of a general definition, and it seems to me that there isn't one. Indeed, intuition is useful here as everywhere. Even if you had a definition, it is nothing more than a description of your intuition. It doesn't fundamentally change the situation.
I am not familiar with the concept of the "composition fallacy", although I understood from you that you meant the assumption that the characteristics of the components necessarily also characterize the complex. I don't see the slightest argument in favor of strong emergentism here. At most, it is just a description in different words of the assumption of emergentism (not necessarily strong. The example of weight that you gave is clearly weak emergentism), and not an argument in its favor. Strong emergentism does not belong here at all.

קובי replied 7 years ago

Shalom Rabbi,
I think the claim that the fallacy of composition works in favor of strong emergentism is quite clear.
After all, strong emergentism claims that there can be phenomena that exist at the macro level that do not exist at the micro level, and yet they are not derived from some sum (and so on) of phenomena at the micro level.
This is precisely the fallacy of composition, which can be a property of a single element that does not appear at the general level.
For example, the claim that each brick weighs a little and therefore the entire wall weighs a little is a false claim and fails in this fallacy.

The same idea exists in strong emergentism, for example, those who claim this about consciousness claim: the fact that every neuron does not have consciousness does not mean that consciousness will not appear in the sequence of all neurons.

מיכי Staff replied 7 years ago

I will explain again.
1. The failure of composition is not an argument in favor of emergentism but itself argues for emergentism itself. Just as the law of gravity is not an argument in favor of the phenomenon of gravity, it is simply a description of it. In other words, someone who accepts emergentism will not see composition as a failure. So what argument is there here?
2. The weight of a wall compared to a collection of stones is a bad example, because it is weak emergentism. The heavy weight is the sum of the light weights, and therefore the macro property is explained by the properties of the micro. The question of whether there is strong emergentism speaks of properties of the macro that cannot be applied to the micro at all. The debate is about this and only about this.

קובי replied 7 years ago

2. You are right, it is indeed a reverse dogma.
1. I did not understand what he meant by claiming emergentism itself? Anyone who accepts strong emergentism will accept the claim that this is a fallacy, just as anyone who also claims weak emergentism. So I did not understand the division.
B. How is it possible not to see this as a fallacy? After all, empirical tests show this easily.

מיכי Staff replied 7 years ago

1. Exactly. And that's why the fallacy of composition adds nothing to the discussion. You make a claim A in favor of a claim B. But if only those who accept B accept A, what have you made? Especially since A is nothing more than a different formulation of B.
B. In weak emergentism, it is indeed empirical (and trivial. Who disputes that?). But regarding strong emergentism, I explained in my book that there is never even the possibility of an empirical test that would show strong emergentism. And that's all we're talking about here. “fallacy of composition” is just a fancy word for trivial or incorrect nonsense.

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