Historical fallacy
The historical fallacy is a logical fallacy originally described by philosopher John Dewey in The Psychological Review in 1896: "A set of considerations which hold good only because a completed process is read into the content of the process which conditions this completed result."[1] More simply, the historical fallacy is reading into a process the results that occur because of that process. Dewey writes:
- "The fallacy that arises when this is done is virtually the psychological or historical fallacy. A set of considerations which hold good only because of a completed process, is read into the content of the process which conditions this completed result. A state of things characterizing an outcome is regarded as a true description of the events which led up to this outcome; when, as a matter of fact, if this outcome had already been in existence, there would have been no necessity for the process."[1]
References
Further reading
- Good, J.A. (2005). A Search for Unity in Diversity: The 'Permanent Hegelian Deposit' in the Philosophy of John Dewey. Lexington Books. p. 202. ISBN 978-0-7391-6066-4. Retrieved July 31, 2016.
- The Reflex Arc Concept in Psychology (1896)