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Ad Hoc ‘For this special object’ – ‘for this particular purpose’: acting or arranged in response to some specific situation or problem, but not concerned with nor considering underlying principles or wider implications.
Applied to any hypothesis or hypothetical explanation developed, putatively, to ‘explain’ a particular set of data which doesn’t fit into an existing theoretical framework, and is developed after the data have been collected.
See Carroll on ad hoc hypothesis and selective thinking.
(see also: Post hoc reasoning, Confirmation bias, Belief perseverance, belief bias, cognitive bias, Selective exposure, wishful thinking)
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ad hoc, ad hoc hypothesis, definition: ‘ad hoc’, for this special object, for this particular purpose |