Question

Anthony and Marie have a heated argument. During their fight, Anthony tells Marie that he hates her and wished that she would get hit by a bus. Later that evening, Anthony receives a call from a friend who tells him that Marie is in the hospital because she was struck by a bus. Anthony immediately blames himself and reasons that if he hadn't made that comment during their fight, Marie would not have been hit.

What logical fallacy has Anthony committed?
i. Slippery Slope
ii. Causal Fallacy
iii. Red Herring
iv. Appeal to Authority

Answer 1

ii. Causal Fallacy

Step-by-step explanation:

Logical fallacies are arguments that rely on incorrect thought processes and can easily be disproven with logic.

Causal Fallacy

The causal fallacy is defined as incorrectly linking one action as a cause of another, unrelated event. For example, the idea that a sports fan can make their favorite team win by wearing a lucky shirt. The team might win when the fan wears the lucky shirt, but the shirt did not cause the win.

This thought process is a fallacy and can be disproven by understanding that the fan's clothing has no effect on the team.

Anthony's Thought Process

Anthony believes that his comment caused Marie to get hit by a bus. However, Anthony was not driving the bus, thus he could not have caused the accident. So, he must be falling into the causal fallacy because he is creating a cause-and-effect relationship that is not real.

Answer 2

Post hoc ergo propter hoc - i guess this is another branch of casual fallacy so go for option ii.

Step-by-step explanation:

Post hoc ergo propter hoc is Latin for, "After this, therefore because of this." This fallacy assumes that just because one event occurred before another, that the first caused the second. In Anthony's case, he assumes that because Marie was hit by a bus after he told her he wished she would be, that caused her accident.