post hoc ergo propter hoc
1
9.9
- noun
- /poʊst hɑk ˈɛrɡoʊ ˈprɒptər hɑk/
- Formal
:
post hoc ergo propter hoc
- As I have discussed in detail elsewhere, and which ought to be clear from my discussion in this post, Ben Bernanke and the idiots at the Fed committed the post hoc ergo propter hoc fallacy with regard to inflation:
Examples
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Many arguments in history suffer from the post hoc ergo propter hoc fallacy, incorrectly linking events as cause and effect.
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I was trying to demonstrate the lunacy of correlation not being causation, otherwise known as the post hoc ergo propter hoc fallacy.
Blog text (10) -
Talks about a post hoc ergo propter hoc fallacy.
Blog text (8) -
Often they are misattributions due to the post hoc ergo propter hoc fallacy.
Blog text (18) -
Your argument suffers the same logical fallacy of post hoc ergo propter hoc that plagues most historians.
Blog text (32) -
There is something in logic called the "post hoc, ergo propter hoc" fallacy, which means that simply because one event follows another, that does not imply a causal relationship.
Fiction book (2000) -
The scientist pointed out that the team's conclusion was based on a post hoc ergo propter hoc assumption, rather than solid evidence.
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In debate class, we learned to identify the post hoc ergo propter hoc fallacy to avoid making incorrect causal claims.
Synonyms
1
9.9
An idea that one event caused another just because it happened first
Surface Forms
Morphology
post + hoc + ergo + propter + hoc
This is a Latin scholarly aphorism composed of Latin/archaic elements rather than ordinary English words, so most B1 learners will not recognise the constituents. Even if a learner recognised pieces like 'post' (after) and 'ergo' (therefore), the specialised technical sense of the logical fallacy ('assuming causation from sequence') is not transparently derivable from the parts, so the expression functions as a fixed, language-specific label.
Etymology
Post hoc ergo propter hoc means 'after this, therefore because of this' and gives a clear image: people see one event follow another and assume the first caused the second. So, when someone says wearing lucky socks made a team win, they are making this wrong assumption.