Wishful Thinking

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(also known as: appeal to consequences [form of])
Description: When the desire for something to be true is used in place of/or as
evidence for the truthfulness of the claim. Wishful thinking, more as a cogniti
ve bias than a logical fallacy, can also cause one to evaluate evidence very dif
ferently based on the desired outcome.
Logical Form:
I wish X were true.
Therefore, X is true.
Example #1:
I know in my heart of hearts that our home team will win the World Series.
Explanation: No, you don t know that, and what the heck is your heart of hearts anyw
ay? This is classic wishful thinking -- wanting the home team to win so pretend
ing that it is/has to be true.
Example #2:
I believe that when we die, we are all given new, young, perfect bodies, and we
spend eternity with those whom we love. I can t imagine the point of life if it a
ll just ends when we die!
Explanation: The fact that one doesn t like the idea of simply not existing is not
evidence for the belief. Besides, nobody seemed to mind the eternity they didn t
exist before they were born.
Exception: When wishful thinking is expressed as a hope, wish, or prayer, and no
belief is formed as a result, then it is not a fallacy because no direct or ind
irect argument is being made.
I really hope that I don t have to spend my eternity with my Aunt Edna, who really
loved me, but she drove me nuts with her constant jabbering.
Tip: Wishing for something to be true is a powerful technique when and only when
, a) you have influence on what it is you want to be true and b) you take action
to make it come true -- not just wish for it to be true.
Sequences
An arrangement of items in sequence
The result of enumeration of a set of items
Collation, the sequencing and ordering of text
Alphabetical order
Order of precedence, a sequential hierarchy of the nominal importance of ite
ms, often people
Art, media, and entertainment
Order (album), 2009 album by German band Maroon
Orders (film), a 1974 film by Canadian filmmaker, Michel Brault
The Order of Odd-Fish, a 2008 children's novel by James Kennedy
Economics and commerce
Order (business), an instruction from a customer to buy
Work order, an order received by an organization from a customer or clie
nt
Order (exchange), customer's instruction to a stock broker
Money order, a payment order for a pre-specified amount of money
Organisations
Religious order
Order (honour)
Chivalric order, established since the middle ages
Military order, established in the era of the crusades
Dynastic order of knighthood of a presently or formerly sovereign ro
yal house
Order of merit of a state or other entity
Ecclesiastical decoration of a head of a denomination
Fraternal order
Legal, political, and military
Civil government
Court order, made by a judge, e.g. a restraining order
Executive order (disambiguation), issued by the executive branch of governme
nt
Law and order (politics)
Public order crime
Statutory instrument, which includes legislative orders
World order (disambiguation), including the concept of a world government
Military
Military order (instruction)
General order, a published directive from a commander
Standing order (disambiguation), a general order of indefinite duration,
and similar ongoing rules in a parliament
Tactical formation, an arrangement or deployment of moving military forces
Mathematics, science, and technology
Biology
Order (biology), a rank between class and family, or a taxon at that rank
Natural order, an outdated rank in biology, equivalent to the modern rank of
family
In phytosociology, an ecological grouping of plants, between alliance and cl
ass
Mathematics
Order (mathematics), with various meanings
Order, a mathematical structure modeling sequenced items, dealt with in orde
r theory
Order of computation, the computational complexity of an algorithm
 Order of hierarchical complexity, quantified by the model of hierarchical co
mplexity, the ordinal complexity of tasks that are addressed
Partially ordered set
Complete partial order
Ranking
Stochastic ordering of random variables or probability distributions
Physics
Implicate and explicate order according to David Bohm
Order and disorder (physics), measured by an order parameter or more general
ly by entropy
Order, optics, the category number of lighthouse Fresnel lenses, defining si
ze and focal length
Topological order in quantum mechanics, an organized quantum state
Signal processing
First-order hold in signal processing
Modulation order, the number of different symbols that can be sent using a g
iven modulation
The polynomial order of a filter (signal processing) transfer function
Other uses in science and technology
ORDER (spacecraft), a space debris removal transport satellite
Order of reaction, a concept of chemical kinetics
Social order in sociology, history and other social sciences, referring to t
he conduct of society
Stream order, used to define river networks based on a hierarchy of tributar
ies
Z-order, which graphics cover up others on computer screens
Philosophy
Natural order (philosophy), the moral source from which natural law seeks to
derive its authority
Ordered system, the universe or the cosmos, the antithetical concept of chao
s
Religion
Canonical order, or Canons Regular, a class of religious orders in the Catho
lic Church
Holy Orders, the rite or sacrament in which clergy are ordained
Monastic order, established circa 300 AD
Order of Mass, the set of texts of the Roman Catholic Church Latin Rite Mass
that are generally invariable
Religious order
Other uses
Classical order, architectonic orders (in architecture)
See also
The Order (disambiguation)
Collation (disambiguation)
Coordination (disambiguation)
Ordinal (disambiguation)
 Ordinate in mathematics, the y element of an ordered pair (x, y)
Ordination, process by which individuals are consecrated
Subordinate
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