Ancient Termites and Modern Law
I often use this brief poem to help students understand the idea of remote causation, and the flaw of attributing too much to such a purported cause:
Some ancient termite knocked on wood
And tasted it, and found it good.
And that is why your Auntie May
Fell through the parlor floor today.
The rather whimsical attribution of today’s accident to the “ancient termite” points out the fallacy of stringing together non-necessary events as if they were explanatory. Inexperienced students sometimes will write something like “Achilleus’ anger caused him to give up his anger” without noticing the absurdity of thus relating the subject and predicate. His anger may have led him to despair and his despair led him to give up his anger, but those are not necessary moves, and the proper subject would be the despair. Likewise, “The death of Patroklos caused Achilleus to give up his anger,” another frequent attempt, directly contradicts the story, because the death of Patroklos triggered the violent anger that made Achilleus so mistreat the body of Hektor. Only when that anger was exhausted – certainly not the result of Patroklos’ death – is Achilleus able to give up his anger.
I thought about this when reading a story about a man jailed for murder in Florida because he loaned his car to a friend who wound up committing a murder in the process of a burglary. The law, apparently a remnant of medieval English common law, considers every participant in the crime guilty of the crime, even though in this case the one who loaned the car was more than a mile away and probably asleep after a late night of partying. Continental Europe never had such a law, and it seems from the article that every other former English colony has repealed the practice. The prosecutor in Florida, however, insisted “no car, no crime,” and got the car owner convicted of murder. That looks like an “ancient termite” to me – a nonnecessary effect of the loaning. It’s especially odd in a country that places so much stock in personal responsibility – the murderer, not the car owner, is responsible for the crime. Perhaps we should join the rest of the civilized world on this question.
I often use this brief poem to help students understand the idea of remote causation, and the flaw of attributing too much to such a purported cause:
Some ancient termite knocked on wood
And tasted it, and found it good.
And that is why your Auntie May
Fell through the parlor floor today.
The rather whimsical attribution of today’s accident to the “ancient termite” points out the fallacy of stringing together non-necessary events as if they were explanatory. Inexperienced students sometimes will write something like “Achilleus’ anger caused him to give up his anger” without noticing the absurdity of thus relating the subject and predicate. His anger may have led him to despair and his despair led him to give up his anger, but those are not necessary moves, and the proper subject would be the despair. Likewise, “The death of Patroklos caused Achilleus to give up his anger,” another frequent attempt, directly contradicts the story, because the death of Patroklos triggered the violent anger that made Achilleus so mistreat the body of Hektor. Only when that anger was exhausted – certainly not the result of Patroklos’ death – is Achilleus able to give up his anger.
I thought about this when reading a story about a man jailed for murder in Florida because he loaned his car to a friend who wound up committing a murder in the process of a burglary. The law, apparently a remnant of medieval English common law, considers every participant in the crime guilty of the crime, even though in this case the one who loaned the car was more than a mile away and probably asleep after a late night of partying. Continental Europe never had such a law, and it seems from the article that every other former English colony has repealed the practice. The prosecutor in Florida, however, insisted “no car, no crime,” and got the car owner convicted of murder. That looks like an “ancient termite” to me – a nonnecessary effect of the loaning. It’s especially odd in a country that places so much stock in personal responsibility – the murderer, not the car owner, is responsible for the crime. Perhaps we should join the rest of the civilized world on this question.
posted by Gene Stowe at 7:14 PM
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