monocausotaxophilia

Noun

monocausotaxophilia (uncountable)

1. The tendency to explain everything as based on a single cause.
   • There is increasing evidence (Levy 1974, 1984, forthcoming) that it is the exchange of information between right-brain and left-brain modes which constitutes what various researchers have called the human “cognitive imperative, "the 'aha' or 'eureka' moment, monocausotaxophilia, "or the "what is...1986, Oral Tradition, page 79
   • One might argue that storytelling itself is the answer arrived at by epic—but this would be to fall into the monocausotaxophilia—my friend Ernst Pöppel's term for the love of single causes that explain everything—that is the temptation of science.2012, Frederick Turner, Epic: Form, Content, and History, page 152