Animistic fallacy: Difference between revisions
imported>GhostInTheMachine Changing short description from "Fallacy of arguing that an event or situation only happens due to someone's intentional action to cause it" to "Fallacy that intent acts to cause events" |
imported>Psychastes Removed {{One source}} tag: it's a stub, one source is fine |
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{{Short description|Fallacy that intent acts to cause events}} | {{Short description|Fallacy that intent acts to cause events}} | ||
The '''animistic fallacy''' is the [[informal fallacy]] of arguing that an event or situation necessarily arose because someone intentionally acted to cause it.<ref name="Sowell">{{cite book |title=Knowledge and decisions |author-link=Thomas Sowell |last=Sowell |first=Thomas |edition=3rd |publisher=Basic Books |year=1996 |isbn=978-0-465-03738-4 |pages=[https://archive.org/details/knowledgedecisio00sowe_0/page/97 97]–100 |url=https://archive.org/details/knowledgedecisio00sowe_0|url-access=registration }}</ref> While it could be that someone set out to effect a specific goal, the fallacy appears in an argument that states this ''must'' be the case.<ref name="Sowell"/> The name of the fallacy comes from the [[animism|animistic]] belief that changes in the physical world are the work of conscious spirits.{{Citation needed|date=September 2010}} | The '''animistic fallacy''' is the [[informal fallacy]] of arguing that an event or situation necessarily arose because someone intentionally acted to cause it.<ref name="Sowell">{{cite book |title=Knowledge and decisions |author-link=Thomas Sowell |last=Sowell |first=Thomas |edition=3rd |publisher=Basic Books |year=1996 |isbn=978-0-465-03738-4 |pages=[https://archive.org/details/knowledgedecisio00sowe_0/page/97 97]–100 |url=https://archive.org/details/knowledgedecisio00sowe_0|url-access=registration }}</ref> While it could be that someone set out to effect a specific goal, the fallacy appears in an argument that states this ''must'' be the case.<ref name="Sowell"/> The name of the fallacy comes from the [[animism|animistic]] belief that changes in the physical world are the work of conscious spirits.{{Citation needed|date=September 2010}} | ||
Latest revision as of 20:39, 2 June 2025
The animistic fallacy is the informal fallacy of arguing that an event or situation necessarily arose because someone intentionally acted to cause it.[1] While it could be that someone set out to effect a specific goal, the fallacy appears in an argument that states this must be the case.[1] The name of the fallacy comes from the animistic belief that changes in the physical world are the work of conscious spirits.Script error: No such module "Unsubst".
Examples
Thomas Sowell in his book Knowledge and Decisions (1980) presents several arguments as examples of the animistic fallacy:[1]
- that people earn wealth always because of superior choices
- that central planning is necessary to prevent chaos in society
Sowell repeatedly dismisses the necessity that order comes from design, and notes that fallacious animistic arguments tend to provide explanations that require comparatively little time to implement. In this light he contrasts the six-day creation of the world described in the Bible to the development of life over billions of years described by evolution.
See also
- Anthropomorphism
- Argument from ignorance
- Pathetic fallacy
- Reification (fallacy)
- Resistentialism
- Teleological argument