Post Hoc Fallacy

·One rhetorical fallacy that has to do with the logos of the argument is post hoc. This is when one event is assumed to cause another event, just because it occurs beforehand. This is fallacious because in reality, there could be one or more other confounding variables that that also contribute to a result. The first event may not even contribute at all to the second. A way to identify this fallacy is to think critically and ask, "are there any other events that could have caused this result in addition to or instead of the event the author is arguing is the cause?" The author may overlooking other major factors that cause something to occur. One example of this fallacy that comes to mind is when people blame a president for causing a problem in a country just because he became the president prior to it happening. However, we should know that there are many events and trends over the course of time that could lead to a conflict such as an economic crisis and the president should not be the only person or thing to blame. For example some might blame President Bush for the increase in unemployment levels in the 2000s, but who is to say that the same problems would not occur with a different president in office? If someone were to think that it I all Bushes fault, this could be an example of the post hoc fallacy. Another more common example of this fallacy is with various superstitions. Many people have superstitions where they think doing a specific action or ritual before an event makes them perform better or gives them good luck. They think this because they did it once or a few times and an event or performance went well for them. For example, on my basketball team in high school, a girl on the team French braided my hair before the game and then in the game, I played very well and made all my free throws. The next game, she braided my hair again and I played well again. She told me it was her "lucky braids" that did the trick, but I recognized this fallacy and knew that the braids did not cause me to play well. I knew that there were other more logical factors like working hard at practice and trying my best in the game. These are some examples and ways to recognize the logical fallacy of post hoc.