HUMA 1900 Study Guide - Midterm Guide: Post Hoc Ergo Propter Hoc, Sympathetic Magic, Exemplum

• School: York University
• Department: Humanities
• Course: HUMA 1900
• Professor: Gary Butler

Document Summary

Supernatural belief and the vampire of oral tradition. Superstition: a statement of one or more conditions and one or more results with some of the conditions signs and other cause. If a black cat crosses your path (cause) you will have bad luck (result) A dog howling at midnight (sign) means someone close to you has died (result) Post hoc ergo propter hoc: after this, because of this, false causality. Ex: you fail a test; you blame it on using the wrong pen. Two unrelated events are linked by false causality. This principle of false causality is the basis for many traditional supernatural beliefs and superstitions. Magic: based on the notion that the world and the animate and inanimate objects within it are interconnected. Sympathetic magic (law of sympathy: homeopathic magic (law of similarity): like causes like, contagious magic (law of contact) contact establishes magical connection.