| | Tim Scobey,
Today I was driving and saw a sticker that said "No one is free when others are oppressed." I am sure that some here have seen that sticker.
Is this an example of a stolen concept?
Technically it is not an example of the stolen concept fallacy.
A stolen concept fallacy, (or smuggled concept), is using a concept to support an argument while denying a concept which the supporting concept logically depends on. This fallacy is called a "stolen" or "smuggled" concept, because an asserted concept includes in its meaning an unnamed concept (so is smuggled in), which is directly, or by implication, denied by the argument. The fallacy is put over by ignoring or evading recognition of the smuggled concept.
For example: "Moral values can never be discovered by reason. Moral values are not objective, they are entirely relative, and every individual must discover for themselves what their moral values are." But, if moral values are not objective and cannot be discovered by reason, what method does each individual use to discover their moral values, and how will they know them when they have been discovered? Even in the grossest versions of subjectivism, such as this example, the fact that reason is the only faculty humans have for discovering and identifying truth cannot be evaded. Once the smuggle concept has been identified, the absurdity of the argument is obvious—"Moral values can never be discovered by reason, therefore everyone must use their own reason to discover moral values."
See Nathaniel Branden's article on the Stolen Concept.
However, the expression, "No one is free when others are oppressed," is fallacious, and belongs to a whole family of fallacies of the order, "when one suffers all suffer," "no man is an island," and, "so long as one person is poor, we are all poor."
These are all collectivist slogans meant to convey, not a concept, but a sentiment, that somehow we are all part of some monolithic entity called society, and whatever happens to anyone in society happens to all of us—it is viciously anti-individualistic.
The essential logical error is context dropping. Obviously, if some poor peasants in China are being oppressed, that does not oppress a single individual in the United States. So, what's the context? Who and where are the others who are oppressed? Why are they oppressed. Is being in jail being oppressed?
Since the statement is not a logical argument it cannot technically be a logical fallacy, nevertheless, it implies several common informal logical fallacies including the following:
Begging the question fallacy - Advancing an argument on the basis of statements which are assumed but need themselves to be proved, or assuming the conclusion or part of the conclusion in the premises of an argument. (Sometimes called circular reasoning.)
Since the expression is a flat-out assumption, the whole thing begs the question. In fact, it is flat-out false. Nothing that happens to one individual happens to anyone else, unless there is some direct connection between the individuals related to that event.
Composition fallacy - Attributing qualities or characteristics of parts of a whole to the whole itself, or attributing qualities or characteristics of some parts of a whole to all parts.
Obviously the expression attributes conditions affecting some members of society to all members of society.
Hasty generalization fallacy - A conclusion or generalization inferred from limited information, inadequate evidence, or a limited sampling.
It is the hastiest of generalizations, since no evidence or argument at all is presented—typical of slogans, especially, collectivist ones.
And finally, by implication, the Impossible conditions fallacy - Arguing that some condition (the state of mankind, the world, the government, or the economy, for example) must be changed before proposed solutions to a problem can be considered, especially when such change is practically impossible.
Because, if it were really true, that so long as one person is oppressed, all are oppressed, no one would ever be free, or ever has been.
Hope this is helpful.
Regi
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