Today we take a slight departure from the word of the day and go to a phrase of the day, specifically:
Post hoc, ergo propter hoc refers to the logical mistake of claiming that one thing caused another just because it happened first.
For example, the rooster crows and the sun rises - but to argue that the rooster's crowing causes the sun to rise would be post hoc, ergo propter hoc reasoning. It was Aristotle who laid the groundwork for classifying bad arguments based on logical errors like this one.
I love this one because it takes a minute to get it, but once you do, you go ohhhh, yeah I know exactly what that means! I used to use that same argument with my mother when I would eat too much of her famous fudge. I would eat it and then get sick. She kept saying that I was eating too much, but even then I was enough of a jerk to argue that it wasn't necessarily causation.
I would like to think I've grown up since then. Let's ask Mary.
On second thought, let's don't...
No comments:
Post a Comment