Fallacy of the single cause

The fallacy of the single cause, also known as complex cause, causal oversimplification, causal reductionism, and reduction fallacy,[1] is a fallacy of questionable cause that occurs when it is assumed that there is a single, simple cause of an outcome when in reality it may have been caused by a number of only jointly sufficient causes.

It can be logically reduced to: " X caused Y; therefore, X was the only cause of Y" (although A,B,C...etc. also contributed to Y.)[1]

Causal oversimplification is a specific kind of false dilemma where conjoint possibilities are ignored. In other words, the possible causes are assumed to be "A or B or C" when "A and B and C" or "A and B and not C" (etc.) are not taken into consideration.

See also

• Affirming the consequent – type of fallacious argument (logical fallacy)
• Essentialism – A view that every entity has identifying attributes
• Jumping to conclusions
• Formal fallacy, also known as Non sequitur (logic) – Faulty deductive reasoning due to a logical flaw
• Proximate and ultimate causation
• Spurious relationship – apparent correlation between causally-independent variables

References

1. "Causal Reductionism". Retrieved 6 October 2012.