Episode #013, 01.01.2012: non sequitur

Happy New Year! One year follows the next, but today I will show you what does not follow…

Sound: http://en.wiktionary.org/wiki/non_sequitur

non sequitur, noun.

1. an inference that does not follow from the premises; specifically: a fallacy resulting from a simple conversion of a universal affirmative proposition or from the transposition of a condition and its consequent
2. a statement (as a response) that does not follow logically from or is not clearly related to anything previously said

(Source: http://www.merriam-webster.com)

In a sentence: “‘It rains, therefore the sun is not shining’ is a non sequitur”.

This is a very obscure word, as “sequitur” and “non sequitur” are neither found in The Concise Oxford Dictionary nor the second edition of the Oxford Advanced Learner's Dictionary of Current English.

I encountered this word in books about philosophy, but I couldn’t find it in my dictionaries. Non sequitur was first used in the 16^th century and is Latin for “it does not follow”.

As seen, non sequitur is a fallacy in logic, but it can also be something blurted out in a discussion that has no relevance to the topic.

So: Stay away from those non sequiturs and have a great year 2012!

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