#22 - Educator: Environmental factors clearly have little

[apple1234567]

Adam, what you are saying seems to contradict the basic assumption we make for causation where for one cause, there is only one effect. Please elaborate. Thanks.

[Adam Tyson]

We, the test-takers, don't make that assumption, apple1234567. We treat the authors of the arguments as if THEY made that assumption, and therein lies their flaw. They make that assumption, but they shouldn't, because there COULD be other causes, or the cause without the effect, or the effect without the cause, etc. So when an author says "my neighbor's rooster crows right before sunrise, so the rooster crowing must be bringing up the sun," it's the author who assumes that the crowing is the one and only cause. We get to say "that's crazy, because the sun was rising for billions of years before your rooster ever existed, and even when the rooster is silent the sun comes up, and maybe it's the coming of dawn that causes the rooster to crow!"

In short, we don't have to assume that the stated cause is the only cause. We just have to recognize that the AUTHOR made that assumption, and we then get to use that against them.