- The cause must precede the event in time. On one hand, arguments that have the effect before the cause are examples of the relatively rare fallacy of reserve casaution. One the other, arguments whose only proof of causation is that the effect followed the cause are examples of fallacious post hoc reasoning.
- Even a strong correlation is insufficient to prove causation. Other possible explanations for such a strong correlation include coincidence, reversed causation, and missing something that is the cause of both the original "cause" and its purported "effect."
Thursday, April 28, 2011
Cause and Effect website
In the Cause and Effect website, I find inductive reasoning useful because it helped me understand a little more on reasoning constructing or evaluating inductive arguments. Inductive reasoning is a kind of reasoning that constructs or evaluates inductive arguments. The premises for the inductive argument indicate some probability - based on observation or experience, for the conclusion but do not impose it; that is, they suggest truth but do not ensure it. The site also provided an example to help the reader understand what is going on and how inductive reasoning works. Also, the site states two rules to remember in dealing with causation which are:
Subscribe to:
Post Comments (Atom)
I also thought this website was interesting. It helped me understand inductive reasoning and how it is constructed or evaluated. Its interesting that you did this part of the website because it is a huge part. It also is a good website because it talks about some key concepts that we have talked about in this class. The rules it give us to dealing with causation is pretty good, But maybe it would have been helpful for it to define causation a little better. I felt that it was a little confusing and could have used clearer explanations. But overall this website was quite helpful and understand.
ReplyDeleteI also felt that the cause effect website was very helpful. It helped me clarify a few gray areas I had about inductive reasoning, that something responds to a cause. This was also a good website because it discussed many of the concepts we have learned in this class this semester. This website although was very helpful it was blunt and straightforward, a little confusing for me to read it once and understand it. But I had to reread the information a few times to fully understand. I would use this website as a source to study for the final.
ReplyDeleteI, too, thought this Cause and Effect website was pretty helpful. It helped me understand some of the parts of inductive reasoning that I had a few questions about. I agree with dinhster27, this is one of the most important forms of reasoning. However, what I didn’t like was the fact that guide for handling causation was a little difficult to understand in some of the examples they used. In the end it took me a few times to understand, but when I finally understood the material, I realized that I can relate and compare the information here, with the text.
ReplyDelete