Composition fallacy

Biological Parallel

Each neuron is simple—input, threshold, fire. Therefore, brains are simple. This is the composition fallacy: properties of parts don't transfer to the whole. Emergence is biology's refutation: simple ants create complex colonies, simple neurons create consciousness, simple cells create multicellular organisms. The whole exhibits properties absent in components. Reductionism works for analysis but fails for synthesis. You can't understand a forest by studying a single tree.