Questionable Cause

The questionable cause – also known as causal fallacy, false cause, or non causa pro causa ("non-cause for cause" in Latin) – is a category of informal fallacies in which a cause is incorrectly identified.

Fallacies of questionable cause include:

Circular cause and consequence
Correlation implies causation (cum hoc, ergo propter hoc)
Fallacy of the single cause
Post hoc ergo propter hoc
Regression fallacy
Spurious relationship
Texas sharpshooter fallacy
Third-cause fallacy
Wrong direction

Informal fallacies

Absence paradox Begging the question Blind men and an elephant Cherry picking Complex question False analogy Fallacy of distribution (Composition Division) Furtive fallacy Hasty generalization I'm entitled to my opinion Loaded question McNamara fallacy Name calling Nirvana fallacy Rationalization (making excuses) Red herring fallacy Special pleading Slothful induction

Correlative-based fallacies	False dilemma Denying the correlative Suppressed correlative

Deductive fallacies	Accident Converse accident

Inductive fallacies	Sampling bias Conjunction fallacy False analogy Hasty generalization Misleading vividness Overwhelming exception

Vagueness and ambiguity	Amphibology Continuum fallacy False precision Slippery slope

Equivocation	Equivocation False attribution Fallacy of quoting out of context Loki's Wager No true Scotsman Reification

Questionable cause	Animistic Appeal to consequences Argumentum ad baculum Correlation does not imply causation (Cum hoc) Gambler's fallacy and its inverse Post hoc Prescience Regression Single cause Slippery slope Texas sharpshooter The Great Magnet Wrong direction

List of fallacies Other types of fallacy

Famous quotes containing the word questionable:

“Television hangs on the questionable theory that whatever happens anywhere should be sensed everywhere. If everyone is going to be able to see everything, in the long run all sights may lose whatever rarity value they once possessed, and it may well turn out that people, being able to see and hear practically everything, will be specially interested in almost nothing.”
—E.B. (Elwyn Brooks)