“Since all medical practitioners are competent and no competent people are underpaid. Therefore no medical practitioners are underpaid.” Which fallacy is committed in the above argument?

Correct option is D

The fallacy committed in the given argument is Undistributed Middle. In this type of fallacy, the middle term is not distributed (i.e., it does not apply to all members of its category), leading to an invalid conclusion.
Here’s the breakdown:
· All medical practitioners are competent (medical practitioners → competent people).
· No competent people are underpaid.
· Conclusion: Therefore, no medical practitioners are underpaid.
The middle term is "competent people," but this term is not properly distributed across the entire category. Just because all medical practitioners are competent and no competent people are underpaid, it does not logically follow that no medical practitioners are underpaid, as there is no direct link between "medical practitioners" and "underpaid" in the premises.
Information booster:
· Hasty Generalization (a): Involves drawing a broad conclusion from limited evidence, but this is not the issue here.
· Affirming the consequent (b): Occurs when one assumes the reverse of a conditional statement, which is not the structure of this argument.
· Begging the question (c): Involves assuming the truth of the conclusion within the premises, which is not the case here.
Additional Knowledge:
1. The undistributed middle fallacy occurs when a term is used in both premises but not in a way that connects the two other terms in the conclusion.
2. The middle term must be distributed in at least one of the premises to form a valid categorical syllogism.