Something I found interesting in chapter 15 was the criteria for cause and effect. In this chapter I learned that there are necessary conditions for there to be cause and effect once we describe the cause and effect with claims. The necessary criteria for cause and effect are:
1. The cause happened (the claim describing it is true).
2. The effect happened (the claim describing it is true).
3. The cause precedes the effect.
4. It is (nearly) impossible for the cause to happen (be true) and the effect not to happen (be false), given the normal conditions.
5. The cause makes a difference if the cause had not happened (been there), the effect would not have happened (been true).
6. There is no common cause.
What I also found interesting and useful was two mistakes in evaluating cause and effect. The first one is reversing cause and effect. The second one is looking too hard for a cause. In that section they talked about post hoc ergo propter hoc which is after this, therefore because of this.
I also picked cause an effect that was useful in chapter fifteen. I had already known cause and effect in the past, but the book opened up more about it. Cause and effect have other factors like how statements and validity are important in claiming that it is true. Your statement on number four is very important because under normal conditions, it could happen. With normal conditions, we must have facts to prove the cause of it and if it’s actually true. Reversing cause and effect was a hard concept to understand for me because I didn’t know you could reverse them.
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