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Fallacy: correlation implies causation

By Jone Johnson Lewis, About.com

Definition: When, in history, events A and B both happen, it is a logical fallacy to assume that either is the cause of the other just because they happen together.
Examples: "The rise of feminism caused the family to deteriorate." It could be that family deterioration had already begun and that feminism was a reaction to the same social conditions. To prove cause requires a far more rigorous investigation than that the conditions happened about the same time, or even one right after another. Another example: Did the potato famine in Ireland (1845-50) cause the American Civil War (1861-1865)?

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