Editing Animistic fallacy

{{Short description|Fallacy that intent acts to cause events}}
{{One source|date=September 2010}}

The '''animistic fallacy''' is the [[informal fallacy]] of arguing that an event or situation necessarily arose because someone intentionally acted to cause it.<ref name="Sowell">{{cite book |title=Knowledge and decisions |author-link=Thomas Sowell |last=Sowell |first=Thomas |edition=3rd |publisher=Basic Books |year=1996 |isbn=978-0-465-03738-4 |pages=[https://archive.org/details/knowledgedecisio00sowe_0/page/97 97]–100 |url=https://archive.org/details/knowledgedecisio00sowe_0|url-access=registration }}</ref>  While it could be that someone set out to effect a specific goal, the fallacy appears in an argument that states this ''must'' be the case.<ref name="Sowell"/>  The name of the fallacy comes from the [[animism|animistic]] belief that changes in the physical world are the work of conscious spirits.{{Citation needed|date=September 2010}}
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==Examples==
[[Thomas Sowell]] in his book ''[[Knowledge and Decisions]]'' (1980) presents several arguments as examples of the animistic fallacy:<ref name="Sowell"/>
* that people earn wealth always because of superior choices
* that central planning is necessary to prevent chaos in society

Sowell repeatedly dismisses the necessity that order comes from design, and notes that fallacious animistic arguments tend to provide explanations that require comparatively little time to implement.  In this light he contrasts the [[Genesis creation narrative|six-day creation of the world]] described in the [[Bible]] to the development of life over billions of years described by [[evolution]].

==See also==
* [[Anthropomorphism]]
* [[Argument from ignorance]]
* [[Pathetic fallacy]]
* [[Reification (fallacy)]]
* [[Resistentialism]]
* [[Teleological argument]]

==References==
{{Reflist}}

{{Fallacies}}

{{DEFAULTSORT:Animistic Fallacy}}
[[Category:Causal fallacies]]
[[Category:Anthropomorphism]]


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