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Fallacy of
False Cause,
Non Causa Pro Causa
Examples Exercise
Abstract: False Cause ,
Non Causa Pro Causa, and related fallacy examples are provided
and analyzed for credibility in a self-scoring quiz.
Fallacy Practice Directions:
(1) Study the features of the False Cause Fallacy
from this web page: False Cause or Non Causa
Pro Causa.
(2) Read and analyze the following passages.
(3) Explain with a sentence or two as to whether or not
you judge the False Cause fallacy to be present.
- “[W]hat above all is here worthy of observation, is the
generation of the animal spirits, which are like a very subtle wind,
or rather a very pure and vivid flame which, continually ascending in
great abundance from the heart to the brain, thence penetrates through
the nerves into the muscles, and gives motion to all the members; so
that to account for other parts of the blood which, as most agitated
and penetrating, are the fittest to compose these spirits, proceeding
toward the brain, it is not necessary to suppose any other cause …”
- “Conservative broadcaster Glenn Beck said last year the
Japanese earthquake and tsunami were God's ‘message being sent’
to that country. A year earlier, Christian broadcaster and former GOP
presidential candidate Pat Robertson tied the Haitian earthquake to that
country's “pact to the devil.” Previously, Robertson argued
Hurricane Katrina was God's punishment for abortion, while the Rev. John
Hagee said the storm was God's way of punishing homosexuality.”
- “[F]iery [star] Sirius, that bearer of drought and pestilence to feeble mortals, rises and saddens the sky with baleful light.”
- “[Former Education Secretary Arne] Duncan writes, “Universities
… often miseducate teachers … and school districts across the
country mismanage new teacher by consistently placing them in situations for
which they're unprepared.” … [D]uring the 2011-12 school year
… 8 percent left in the profession (“leavers”) during the
following year according to the National Center for Education Statistics' most
recent data on teacher attrition and mobility. … The same data set found
that “51% of public school teachers who left teaching in 2012-13 reported
that the manageability of their work load was better in their current position
than in teaching. Additionally, 53 percent of public school leavers reported
that their general work conditions were better in their current position than in
teaching.”
- “[P]hilosophers have attributed a thousand effects to the
abhorrence of a vacuum … [They] commonly teach that vessels
full of water break when they freeze, because the water contracts, and
thus leaves a vacuum which nature cannot endure.”
- “Home buyers have actually sued over undisclosed hauntings.
For example, when Jeffrey Stambovsky bought a turreted turn-of-the century
Victorian in Nyack, New York, in 1990, he wasn't familiar with local
legends. Nor had the seller disclosed her experiences to him, which
included a ghost that periodically shook her daughter's bed, another
that hovered in midair, and one that dressed as a Navy lieutenant during
the American Revolution and confronted her son ‘eyeball to eyeball
outside the basement door.’ Once Stambovsky got wind of all this,
he wanted out of the purchase. He got his way, but only after taking the
seller and real estate agent to court, claiming fraudulent misrepresentation.
Eventually, a New York appellate court made the astonishing ruling that
the house was haunted as a matter of law, because the former owner had
previously reported the ghosts to the media.”
-
The ability to intuit causes is suggested in the
following comment made by Benedick concerning the playing of music:
“Don Pedro: Come, shall we hear this
music? …
Benedict: [Aside] Now, divine air! now
is his soul ravished! — Is it not strange, that sheep's guts should
hale souls out of men's bodies? — Well, a horn for my money, when
all's done.”
- “If you marry my Daughter I make you my heire: … if
you will have warre, looke for cost, trouble, and daunger,
for these are incident, and cleave to every person, that will live in
warres.”
- “Aesop's Fly on the Chariot Wheel doubtless argued ‘Seeing
that I am on this chariot, which proceeds so gloriously,
is it not rational to imagine that I am the cause of its
speed?’”
- “Donald Trump: “Since taking office I have
been very strict on Commercial Aviation. Good news — it was just
reported that there were Zero deaths in 2017, the best and safest
year on record!”
- “Until 1954, it was considered pretty much impossible to run
a mile in four minutes, and in that year it was actually done. After that,
the record was broken again and again by runners. Why? The first runner
to break that limit proved the belief that it was impossible wrong and
mentally enabled other runners to succeed.”
- “One thing I would like to repeat, ancient Rome declined
because it had a senate. Now what's going to happen to us with
both a Senate and a House? Let's be thankful we're not getting all
the government we're paying for.”
- “While there is no question our Judeo-Christian values
took a hit in recent years, we have not yet reached the point
of a totally godless government that sets itself up as the supreme
authority and giver of rights. As a nation, we must decide definitely
whether we believe in God and godly principles. We must decide
whether we revere the Bible and what it means when our elected officials
take their oaths of office with one hand upon it. If we do nothing,
we allow by default the elimination of God as a central figure in our
culture. ”
- “Weather Underground comrade William Ayers is a professor
of education on the faculty of the University of Illinois at Chicago.
Unrepentant, in the wake of 9/11, Ayers told us: “I don't regret
setting bombs. I feel we didn't do enough.” Bernardine Dohrn,
his wife, is a professor at Northwestern University School of Law.
Her stated mission is to overthrow capitalism. Ayers and Dohrn, as
well as the Rev. Jeremiah Wright, are people who hate our nation and
are longtime associates of President Obama's. That might help in
explaining our president's vision.”
- “Galen mentions an amulet belonging to an Egyptian king,
who is said to have lived 630 B.C. It was composed of a green jasper
cut in the form of a dragon, and surrounded with rays. This was
applied to strengthen the stomach and organs of digestion.”
Notes
[Source title links below connect to the online page reference.]
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