Fallacy 9 — Equivocation: Fallacy 9, Equivocation (word shift), uses the same word in two different meanings inside one argument. "Man is a rational animal.
The word 'man' shifts meaning: A statue of a man is a man. Therefore a statue of a man is a rational animal" — the word "man" shifts meaning between the premises.
Equivocation and Fallacy 10: In religious discourse, equivocation often happens with words like "faith", "knowledge", or "light", which have a literal and a metaphorical meaning, and the argument quietly switches between them. Fallacy 10, Composition and Division, confuses part and whole: composition argues that what is true of the parts must be true of the whole ("each brick is light, so the wall is light" — false); division argues that what is true of the whole must be true of each part ("the team is excellent, so every player is excellent" — false).
Composition and division in Kalam: In Kalam and Fiqh, composition and division errors appear when an attribute of a group is transferred to an individual, or the reverse.
Example
Each verse is short: "Each verse of the Quran is short. The Quran is a collection of verses.
Therefore the Quran is short: Therefore the Quran is short" — that is composition: what is true of each part is not true of the whole.
Key Terms
- Equivocation — الفاظ کی تبدیلی / اشتراک لفظی
- Composition (الترکیب) and Division (التقسیم) — part/whole errors
Quran or Hadith
None known from the slide title.
Fresh diagram to be drawn: Two small "spot the fallacy" cards, as in Topic 10.2.
Note: Slide 64 was not read; based on the filename and standard Mantiq definitions. Verify before publication.
- Equivocation uses the same word in two different meanings inside one argument — "man" shifts meaning between the premises.
- "Each verse of the Quran is short. The Quran is a collection of verses. Therefore the Quran is short" — that is composition: what is true of each part is not true of the whole.