Fallacy of Composition

The converse of the fallacy of division, this error was catalogued by Aristotle in his 350 BCE Sophistical Refutations, where he treated it as a failure of how language handles the relationship between parts and wholes. The fallacy gained economic prominence in the early 20th century through what became known as the Paradox of Thrift — where what is rational for each individual saver (spend less) can harm the whole economy. John Maynard Keynes articulated this macroeconomic instance in his 1936 General Theory.