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The thing is, "beg the question" as it is used in everyday language is much more transparent and easier to understand than its 'proper' usage. If you want to d
by James_Duval 13y ago
The thing is, "beg the question" as it is used in everyday language is much more transparent and easier to understand than its 'proper' usage.
If you want to describe that specific fallacy in some way, there's a lovely phrase for that which already exists, describes the fallacy better, and uses fewer words - "petitio principii".
"Beg the question" used in this sense strikes me as redundant, inaccurate as a translation and a description, clunky, and pointlessly confusing. I hope its misuse is not actively fought, and that people who wish to describe the fallacy find a better way of doing so.
- lunchbox 13y agoAnother name for "begging the question" is simply "circular reasoning"
- dragonwriter 13y ago> The thing is, "beg the question" as it is used in everyday language is much more transparent and easier to understand than its 'proper' usage. Even better, it is impossible to confuse with the "proper" usage (because it is distinct syntactically) and makes the "proper" usage more transparent and easier to understand. The everyday form is transitive, its always "<foo> raises the question <bar>" and means "Accepting <foo> creates the need for a resolution of the issue <bar>". The "proper" form is intransitive, its always simply "<foo> raises the question", meaning "<foo> invokes the petitio principii fallacy". This can be rephrased, however, as "<foo> creates the need for a resolution of the issue <bar>" where <bar> is the proposition argument <foo> was offered to justify, as it is stating that the argument depends on the conclusion it was offered to support.