History Main / RetrospectiveDeterminism

!! '''[[http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Retrospective_determinism Retrospective determinism]]''':
:: Assuming that because something happened it was inevitable; often, the follow-on is a Hasty Generalisation that it will inevitably happen ''again'' in the same situation, leading to tropes like HitlersTimeTravelExemptionAct and PlanetOfHats.

->Alice: Hey Bob, how's the knee?\\
Bob: After I went out for a walk, I was bound to trip and break my knee.

::Bob gives no real reason as to why this was the only possible result, or even why it was the most likely; it differs from FalseCause in that he ''did'' break his knee as a result of going out for a walk. He might follow on by cautioning Alice to avoid going outside, lest she suffer the same fate. Often happens during arguments over AlternateHistory, as someone attempts to argue for the historical result being inevitable.

::More seriously, people use this to comfort themselves after losing someone, saying "it was their time." Unless they really believe that each person's time of death is determined beforehand, they don't really mean it (especially as that would be very depressing).

!!Examples:

* This is a major problem in the history discipline, although it's usually not quite so explicit. Because we all view events from our present-day vantage point, it's often natural to assume that a past set of events must have inevitably led to the present set of circumstances. If left unchecked this can lead to things like describing historical actors as if they knew in advance what would happen or that they were deliberately crafting the future. See [[https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Teleology here]]. For instance, UsefulNotes/AbrahamLincoln was an abolitionist who recognized slavery as an inhuman and antiquated institution, but also [[FairForItsDay held views that would be quite racist today]], such as preferring that all freed blacks in the United States migrate back to Africa because he thought blacks and whites living together in peace was impossible. Many portrayals of the man in popular culture will forget this and instead [[HistoricalHeroUpgrade make it seem like he was in favor of total equality]] because that was the ultimate outcome.
* The philosophical [[https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Anthropic_principle Anthropic Principle]] (not to be confused with the narrative AnthropicPrinciple) has a common misinterpretation rooted in this fallacy: While the actual concept holds that we live on a planet and in a universe that seems astoundingly well suited to the existence of human life because humans live on Earth in such a universe, many people incorrectly invert this into things like "The rules of the universe we live in are the only ones possible because our form of life could not live in universes with alternate laws of physics." and "Intelligent life can only exist as carbon-based life on Earth-like planets because humans live on Earth and are carbon-based life".
----

* The philosophical [[https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Anthropic_principle Anthropic Principle]] (not to be confused with the narrative AnthropicPrinciple) has a common misinterpretation rooted in this fallacy: While the actual concept holds that we live on a planet and in a universe that seems astoundingly well suited to the existence of human life [[CaptainObvious because humans live on Earth in such a universe]], many people incorrectly invert this into things like "The rules of the universe we live in are the only ones possible because our form of life could not live in universes with alternate laws of physics." and "Intelligent life can only exist as carbon-based life on Earth-like planets because humans live on Earth and are carbon-based life".

* The philosophical [[https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Anthropic_principle Anthropic Principle]] (not to be confused with the narrative AnthropicPrinciple) has a common misinterpretation rooted in this fallacy: While the actual concept holds that we live on a planet and in a universe that seems astoundingly well suited to the existence of human life [[CaptainObvious because humans live on Earth in such a universe]], many people incorrectly invert this into "The rules of the universe we live in are the only ones possible because our form of life could not live in universes with alternate laws of physics."

* The philosophical [[https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Anthropic_principle Anthropic Principal]] (not to be confused with the narrative AnthropicPrincipal) has a common misinterpretation rooted in this fallacy: While the actual concept holds that we live on a planet and in a universe that seems astoundingly well suited to the existence of human life [[CaptainObvious because humans live on Earth in such a universe]], many people incorrectly invert this into "The rules of the universe we live in are the only ones possible because our form of life could not live in universes with alternate laws of physics."

::More seriously, people use this to comfort themselves after losing someone, saying "it was their time." Unless they really believe that each person's time of death is determined beforehand, they don't really mean it (especially as that would be very depressing).

::More seriously, people use this to comfort themselves after losing someone, saying "it was their time." Unless they really believe that when everyone dies is determined beforehand, they don't really mean it (especially as that would be very depressing).

::More seriously, people use this to comfort themselves after losing someone, saying it was their "time to death." Unless they really believe everyone's time of death is set beforehand, they don't actually mean it (and that would be very depressing).

::Bob gives no real reason as to why this was the only possible result, or even why it was the most likely; it differs from FalseCause in that he ''did'' break his knee as a result of going out for a walk. He might follow on by cautioning Alice to avoid going outside, lest she suffer the same fate. Often happens during arguments over AlternateHistory, as someone attempts to argue for the historical result being inevitable.

::Bob gives no real reason as to why this was the only possible result, or even why it was the most likely; it differs from False Cause in that he ''did'' break his knee as a result of going out for a walk. He might follow on by cautioning Alice to avoid going outside, lest she suffer the same fate. Often happens during arguments over AlternateHistory, as someone attempts to argue for the historical result being inevitable.

::Bob gives no real reason as to why this was the only possible result, or even why it was the most likely; it differs from False Cause in that he ''did'' break his knee as a result of going out for a walk. He might follow on by cautioning Alice to avoid going outside, lest she suffer the same fate. Often happens during arguments over AlternateHistory.

::Bob gives no real reason as to why this was the only possible result, or even why it was the most likely; it differs from False Cause in that he ''did'' break his knee as a result of going out for a walk. He might follow on by cautioning Alice to avoid going outside, lest she suffer the same fate.