Which informal fallacy is committed in the following statement? American Indians are disappearing. That man is an American Indian. Therefore, that man is disappearing.
ARed herring
BHasty generalisation
CBegging the question
DFallacy of division ✓ Correct
Correct answer: (D) Fallacy of division
Explanation
A trait of the whole group is wrongly carried to a single member, which is the fallacy of division.
American Indians as a people are disappearing, a claim about the collective.
That one man is an American Indian is a claim about an individual.
The individual need not share what is true only of the class taken as a whole.
Inferring a part from the whole in this way is the fallacy of division.
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