The difference between necessity and sufficiency, particularly in regard to causality. This series of questions:
Assuming A actually causes B:
Can A alone cause/explain B? (sufficiency)
Can anything else also cause/explain B other than A? (necessity)
There's a lot more than that, but those are the basics and they'll get you far with critical thinking. Pretty much any logical fallacy in those never-ending "lists of logical fallacies" can be rephrased in terms of causality, necessity, and sufficiency.
> Pretty much any logical fallacy in those never-ending "lists of logical fallacies" can be rephrased in terms of causality, necessity, and sufficiency.
Most are unrelated to causality, because they are based on logical implication not causality. Sufficiency and necessity are relevant, but logical sufficiency and necessity, not causal sufficiency and necessity.
Yeah, that's why I edited and put cause/explain. For the purposes of the point, it's the same type of thinking whether you are analyzing causes of effects, or reasons why.
Assuming A actually causes B:
Can A alone cause/explain B? (sufficiency)
Can anything else also cause/explain B other than A? (necessity)
There's a lot more than that, but those are the basics and they'll get you far with critical thinking. Pretty much any logical fallacy in those never-ending "lists of logical fallacies" can be rephrased in terms of causality, necessity, and sufficiency.