Stella's Place

The science of logic fascinates me. This is just one of several logical fallacies.

Post hoc ergo propter hoc (Latin: ‘after this, therefore because of this’) is an informal fallacy that states: “Since event Y followed event X, event Y must have been caused by event X.” It is often shortened simply to post hoc fallacy.

The fallacy of Post Hoc Ergo Propter Hoc begins with the observation that two events occurred in sequence. Post hoc is a fallacy because a particular order of events does not necessarily prove a causal relationship between them. It is possible that the temporal ordering is just a coincidence, or is the result of some other factor.

EXAMPLES:

The country’s economy improves right after a new President takes office. We might think that the new President is responsible for the improvement. That might, in fact, be true or partially true, but it is also true that a wide variety of factors influence our national economy.

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