post hoc
Reasoning backwards temporally
Post hoc means "after the fact" or "after the event," from the Latin.
The phrase appears most often in post hoc reasoning or the post hoc fallacy—the error of assuming that because one thing followed another, the first caused the second.
Post hoc rationalization refers to justifications invented after a decision has already been made.
Production of effects
- correlationStatistical relationship measure
- false causeIncorrectly identified reason
- logical errorFlaw in reasoning
- spuriousFalse though appearing genuine
misattribution · non sequitur · jumping to conclusions · oversimplification · anecdotal evidence · coincidence · superstition · magical thinking
Methodical study of parts
- reviewCritical written assessment
- evaluationDetermining worth or quality
- reassessmentRenewed evaluation of something
- reexaminationInspecting something once more
debriefing · audit · after-the-fact · hindsight · lookback · reflection · reconsideration · assessment
Reason proving rightness
- rationalizationInventing acceptable motives afterward
- explanationStatement making something clear
- rationaleStated basis for action
- inferenceConclusion reached through reasoning
argumentation · premise · conclusion · analysis · interpretation · hypothesis · deduction · working backward
causation
Production of effects
- correlationStatistical relationship measure
- false causeIncorrectly identified reason
- logical errorFlaw in reasoning
spurious · misattribution · non sequitur · jumping to conclusions · oversimplification · anecdotal evidence · coincidence · superstition · magical thinking · apophenia
analysis
Methodical study of parts
- reviewCritical written assessment
- evaluationDetermining worth or quality
- reassessmentRenewed evaluation of something
reexamination · debriefing · audit · after-the-fact · hindsight · lookback · reflection · reconsideration · assessment · examination
justification
Reason proving rightness
- rationalizationInventing acceptable motives afterward
- explanationStatement making something clear
- rationaleStated basis for action
inference · argumentation · premise · conclusion · analysis · interpretation · hypothesis · deduction · working backward · reverse engineering
- fallaciesstraw man, red herring, circular reasoning, ad hominem, fallacy
- logical fallaciesfallacy, straw man, ad hominem, red herring, false dilemma
- rhetoric termsethos, pathos, logos, ad hominem, oratory
- argumentsargument, arguing, disagreement, bickering, dispute
- statisticsmean, median, mode, variance, standard deviation
post hoca priori
Independent of experience
predictive · prospective · ex ante · beforehand · prior
post hoca priori
Independent of experience
confirmatory · prespecified · predetermined · principled · deductive
ad hoc, post, postscript, posthumous, postmortem, ex post facto