[lit-ideas] Re: Who READS history?
- From: Robert Paul <rpaul@xxxxxxxx>
- To: lit-ideas@xxxxxxxxxxxxx
- Date: Mon, 07 Jun 2010 14:50:42 -0700
"History is written by the winners.
J L Speranza responded
---This begs the question: "Who READS history?"
This use of the expression, 'to beg the question,' has, I grant, become
widespread. It seems to mean, in its current journalistico/politico
form, something like, 'However, that raises the question of...,' or,
'Even so, you need to answer this (further) question...' Originally (and
in reputable circles still), 'to beg the question,' was the informal
logical fallacy of using what was to have been demonstrated as a
premise. It's a bit more complicated than that
<http://www.fallacyfiles.org/begquest.html> but the now widespread use,
as in JL's example, is still far from the original one.
Wiki says
'Begging the question (or petitio principii, "assuming the initial
point") is a logical fallacy in which the proposition to be proved is
assumed implicitly or explicitly in the premise. The word beg, when used
in this phrase, does not mean "asking for something", instead it means
to dodge or avoid. Begging the question is related to circular argument,
circulus in probando (Latin for "circle in proving") or circular
reasoning but they are considered absolutely different by Aristotle. The
first known definition in the West is by the Greek philosopher Aristotle
around 350 BCE, in his book Prior Analytics, where he classified it as a
material fallacy.'
Robert Paul,
Mutton College
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