Flaw of causation

Posted in Critical thinking, Flaws

The flaw of causation or 'correlation not causation' flaw is committed by reasoning that because two events happen together there is a direct link between the two. In simple terms:

A happened before B, therefore A caused B

The flaw here is not considering any other reasons or explanations for the two events happening together, it could something else, C, causes both A and B. The simple fact that there is a correlation between two things does not imply causation.