I thought that this website about cause and effect was useful in helping me as well as the rest of the class, to better understand the concept. The website explains that causation is one of the most important uses for inductive reasoning. The author of this webpage chose a perfect scenario to help illustrate his example. Each event that occurred caused another event to occur. The biker moves into the traffic lane, which causes the driver to slam on the brakes, and then a following car slams into them as a result. The website also provides two rules to remember when dealing with causation.
- 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 reverse causation. 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."
Your post was easy to understand and helpful. I agree with you in that this website was helpful to the whole class to better understand cause and effect. The scenario the author chose was really good. It went from one cause and effect to the other so it was really easy to understand. The rules that were on the website directly related to those that were in the book, especially the first one. However, I think the website was easier to understand because it gave more than just a one sentence explanation. Websites are usually better with explanations because they are more interactive with the audience. Thanks for your post! :)
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