Questionable cause
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Logical fallacy
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The questionable cause—also known as causal fallacy, false cause, or non causa pro causa ("non-cause for cause" in Latin)—is a category of informal fallacies in which the cause or causes is/are incorrectly identified. In other words, it is a fallacy of reaching a conclusion that one thing caused another, simply because they are regularly associated.
Questionable cause can be logically reduced to: "A is regularly associated with B; therefore, A causes B."[1]
For example: "Every time I score an A on the test its a sunny day. Therefore the sunny day causes me to score well on the test." Here is the example the two events may coincide or correlate, but have no causal connection.[2]
Fallacies of questionable cause include:
- Circular cause and consequence [citation needed ]
- Correlation implies causation (cum hoc, ergo propter hoc)
- Fallacy of the single cause
- Post hoc ergo propter hoc
- Observational interpretation fallacy
- Regression fallacy
- Texas sharpshooter fallacy
- Jumping to conclusions
- Association fallacy
- Magical thinking
References
[edit ]- ^ "Questionable Cause".
- ^ Bennett, Bo. "Questionable Cause". logicallyfallacious.com. Retrieved 2016年11月23日.
External links
[edit ]- Non causa pro causa in the Fallacy Files by Gary N. Curtis
