The Last Straw Fallacy: Another Causal Fallacy and Its Harmful Effects

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Web End = Argumentation (2015) 29:457474

DOI 10.1007/s10503-014-9339-x

Carolyn Cusick Mark Peter

Published online: 16 November 2014 Springer Science+Business Media Dordrecht 2014

Abstract We have noticed a pattern of arguments that exhibit a type of irrationality or a particular informal logical fallacy that is not fully captured by any existing fallacy. This fallacy can be explored through three examples where one misattributes a cause by focusing on a smaller portion of a larger setspecically, the last or least knownand claiming that that cause holds a unique priority over other contributing factors for the occurrence of an event. We propose to call this fallacy the last straw fallacy and will argue why these examples actually warrant a new logical name. Finally, we will show how these cases point to a deeper insight about the contexts in which we typically invoke this type of reasoning and some signicant harmful consequences of doing so.

Keywords Informal fallacy Strategic reasoning Tactical reasoning Causal

fallacy Intentional foul Last straw

1 Introduction

There is an as yet unaccounted for and disconcerting pattern of reasoning in some common arguments made in disparate contexts. This pattern needs to be recognized not only because it is often fallacious reasoning but also because of the signicant negative consequences that arise in routine commissions of the fallacy. The error made, we argue, cannot be accounted for in terms of any already well-identied

C. Cusick (&)

Department of Philosophy, California State University, Fresno, 2380 E. Keats Ave. M/S MB 105, Fresno, CA 93740-8024, USAe-mail: [email protected]

M. Peter

Philosophy Department, Vanderbilt University, 111 Furman Hall, Nashville, TN 37240, USA e-mail: [email protected]

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Web End = The Last Straw Fallacy: Another Causal Fallacy and Its Harmful Effects

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formal or informal fallacies. This fallacy can be explored through three examples where one misattributes a cause by focusing on a smaller portion of a larger set specically, the last or least knownand claiming that that cause holds a unique priority over the other contributing factors.

First, consider a common scenario at a sports game:

(a)...