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I don't really want to get into it, those days are long behind me. But I couldn't help feeling dissatisfied with the content you linked. A simple example wou
by jakeva 6y ago
I don't really want to get into it, those days are long behind me. But I couldn't help feeling dissatisfied with the content you linked.
A simple example would be "My favorite author is always right because he says so in his latest book." The proof is merely a restatement of the premise. The sentence has begged the question.
Ok, but... why? It asserts that "begging the question" is misused, asserts a "real" meaning, but doesn't explain it. In what way is a restatement of the premise a form of "begging the question"?
I don't get it and just wanted to vent a little bit, putting my feelings about linguistic prescriptivism aside.
- inopinatus 6y agoThe idiom is a mistranslation of petitio principii, which is the Latin phrase meaning to assume the intended point, and which itself is a 16th-century mistranslation of Aristotle from around 2,300 years ago, so it’s a wonder that anyone still understands this phrase at all. I recommend treating this phrase, “to beg the question”, as an irregular verb. The component words provide the inflections, but not the meaning, although there may be some poetic utility.
- yellowapple 6y agoYou could almost say it... ...begs the question.