32 How to Win Every Argument/ have gathered into one regiment all of the strongest men in the army.
This will be my strongest regiment.
(I doubt it. The strength of a regiment depends on such factors as its
morale and its teamwork, not to mention its speed, its ability to
operate with minimal supplies, and similar attributes.)The fallacy arises from a failure to recognize that the group is a
distinct entity of which things can be said which do not apply to
individual persons. Evidence advanced to attest to the qualities of
the members is therefore irrelevant to an appraisal of the group.
Americans are particularly vulnerable to this fallacy because
their grammar makes no distinction between the collective entity
and the individuals within it. It seems to be universal in the
American language to use singular verbs for collective nouns,
regardless of whether the members or the group are being
referred to.
In English we would say 'the crew is a good one', referring to
it as a separate entity, but 'the crew are tired', if we are speaking
of its members. In American one uses the singular verb in both
cases, losing an important distinction.
If everyone in society looks after themselves, then our society will be one
that looks after itself.
(It will certainly be a society of people who look after themselves; but
maybe society has aspects which need to be looked after by people
acting in concert.)A variant of the fallacy of composition covers cases in which
things which are true for individuals become untrue if they are
extrapolated to cover the whole group.