A cause and effect situation can be defined and described by claims. There is a relationship between the two, between the premises and conclusion of either a strong or valid argument. Two mistakes are often seen when evaluating a cause and effect situation. These two are: reversing the cause and effect, or looking too hard for the cause. An example of the first mistake can be seen here:
Bob: The more you shave your hair, the faster and thicker it grows back.
Rich: Why do you think so?
Bob: Well if I shave every day, and I seem to get a 5 o’clock shadow earlier and earlier every day.
Even if Bob is complaining about hair growing back by shaving often, he shaves every day regardless.
The second mistake occurs usually when someone jumps to a conclusion. Sometimes, not everything has a cause. Therefore, looking for a cause may sometimes be a waste if there is not one to begin with.
I like your blog post. It was very well written and also, I liked how you gave an example for this post. Personally, I did not put a post on everything, but it probably would have made things easier for the reader to understand. Also, when I read this topic, it was a little weird for me to hear that some people actually think that the effect had happened before the cause. That’s one thing that I don’t understand. It also goes against the criteria for cause and effect. It is necessary for the cause to happen before the effect. But I guess that’s why this is a mistake that people make!
ReplyDeleteYour blog was good about cause and effect. And it also related to some of us who have to shave on the daily or frequently lol. But it looks like you really understand the concepts of cause and effect. After reading your blog I understand what you were talking about a common mistake of cause and effect. Like for someone to open the door suddenly is random but does not mean that there was a cause for it like if someone was outside the door knocking. They could have opened the door because it was hot, or for some odd reason they just felt like opening the door.
ReplyDeleteI like how you went over the two mistakes that are often seen when evaluating a cause and effect situation: reversing the cause and effect, or looking too hard for the cause. Your first example made a lot of sense, but I do wish that you had provided an example of looking too hard for the cause. I only went over the necessary criteria for a cause and effect argument to work in my blog. I think by being able to identify our mistakes, we are able to become better and grow intellectually in terms of the different critical thinking concepts.
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