Socrates was a man,
∴ Socrates was a scholar.
It does not follow that because a man is a thinking animal that he will become scholarly.
False Cause.
This is the fallacy of assuming that because two happenings have occurred together several times, the one is the cause of the other. This very common fallacy is due to lack of discrimination, and to the exaggerations incident to fear and superstition. Illustrations:
(a) Planting vegetables which grow down, such as the beet, during the last two days of the waxing moon in order to have a larger yield. So far as we know the moon has no influence over growing vegetables.
(b) Thirteen seated at a table is an indication that one of the number will die during the year. This is one of the most absurd fallacies that has ever been visited upon an intelligent people.
It is seen that “False Cause” is closely related to “Non Sequitur.”
Complex Question (Double Question).
This fallacy obtains when an assumption is put in the form of a question.