Questionable cause

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 a something that is not really the cause of something else is treated as its cause. Whenever an argument is suspected of committing the false cause fallacy, the reader or listener should be able to say that the conclusion depends on the supposition that X causes Y, whereas X probably does not cause Y at all.^[1] For example: "Every time I go to sleep, the sun goes down. Therefore, my going to sleep causes the sun to set." The two events may coincide, 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)
- Third-cause fallacy
- Wrong direction
Fallacy of the single cause
Post hoc ergo propter hoc
Regression fallacy
Texas sharpshooter fallacy
Jumping to conclusions
Association fallacy
Magical thinking

References[edit]

^ Hurley, Patrick J (2012). A Concise Introduction to Logic (11th ed.). Cengage Learning. p. 143. ISBN 9780840034175.
^ Bennett, Bo. "Questionable Cause". logicallyfallacious.com. Retrieved 2016-11-23.

External links[edit]

Non causa pro causa in the Fallacy Files by Gary N. Curtis

[1] Hurley, Patrick J (2012). A Concise Introduction to Logic (11th ed.). Cengage Learning. p. 143. ISBN 9780840034175.

[2] Bennett, Bo. "Questionable Cause". logicallyfallacious.com. Retrieved 2016-11-23.

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