All men are thinking animals, 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.
_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_.”
_This fallacy obtains when an assumption is put in the form of a question._
(a) A wise father who did not want to tempt beyond the yielding point his three-year-old son, asked, pointing to the scratches on the new mahogany piano, “Freddie, did you do that last night or this morning?”
(b) What caused you to desist from slandering your neighbors; New Year’s resolutions or the preaching of Dominie X?
“Charles Bradlaugh, the noted English free-thinker, once engaged in a discussion with a dissenting minister. He insisted that the minister should answer questions by a simple yes or no, asserting that every question should be replied to in that manner.” The reverend gentleman arose and said, “Mr. Bradlaugh, will you allow me to ask you a question on these terms?” “Certainly,” said Mr. Bradlaugh. “Then, may I ask, have you given up beating your wife?”
_Begging the Question_ (_Petitio Principii_).
This is a fallacy _of deriving a conclusion from notions which in themselves demand proof_.
The fallacy is not committed when the assertion is self-evident. It is easy to claim that our opponent is begging the question as soon as we see that he is getting the better of us. One may himself beg the question by being too ready to charge others with begging the question. When the opponent adopts premises which are commonly accepted, he does not beg the question. One commits the fallacy when he _seems to prove_ the conclusion more satisfactorily than he really does. This he may accomplish by covertly taking for granted the truth of notions which have not the stamp of universal approval. The fallacy of begging the question assumes three forms: