Dear Scholars,
This week's informal fallacy is one that is often mistakenly invoked.
In classical rhetoric <https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Rhetoric> and logic
<https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Logic>, *begging the question
<https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Begging_the_question>* or *assuming the
conclusion* (Latin <https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Latin_language>: *petītiō
principiī*) is an informal fallacy
<https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Informal_fallacy> that occurs when an
argument's premises assume the truth <https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Truth> of
the conclusion <https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Logical_consequence>.
Historically, begging the question refers to a fault in a dialectical
<https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Dialectical> argument
<https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Argument> in which the speaker assumes some
premise <https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Premise> that has not been
demonstrated to be true. In modern usage, it has come to refer to an
argument in which the premises assume the conclusion without supporting it.
This makes it more or less synonymous with circular reasoning
<https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Circular_reasoning>.
Some examples are:
- "People have known for thousands of years that the earth is round.
Therefore, the earth is round."
- "Drugs are illegal so they must be bad for you. Therefore, we ought
not legalize drugs because drugs are bad for you."
Informal misuse of the phrase "begs the question" also occurs with an
entirely dissimilar sense in place of "prompts a question" or "raises a
question"
dr chris cléirigh
*Most of the evil of the world comes about **not out of evil motives, *
*but somebody saying **'get with the program, **be a team player'.*
— Philip Zimbardo
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Some Of My Sites
Review of *Subjacency Duplexes* <https://subjacencyduplex.blogspot.com/>
Review of *Modelling Paralanguage Using SFS*
<https://modelling-paralanguage.blogspot.com/>
Review of *Axial Relations* <https://axial-relations.blogspot.com/>
Learning From Mistakes <http://thoughts-that-cross-my-mind.blogspot.com.au/>
Primate Dominance Strategies <https://attitude-in-sfl.blogspot.com/>
The Culture of the SFL Community <https://whatliesbeneathsfl.blogspot.com/>
Intellectual Applications of SFL Theory
<http://informingthoughts.blogspot.com.au/>
The Opposite of Social Media <https://mental-projection.blogspot.com/>
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