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Begging the question

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Mon, May 13 2013 9:57 AM (44 replies)

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bubbadork

984 Posts

Wed, May 8 2013 4:46 AM

I see this phrase quite a lot in forums. This is probably a useless item of information unless you hang around people who use logic in their lives. Then it might save you some embarrassment.

"Begging the question" does not mean "Raising the question." Begging the question means to use a specious argument to prove a point.

For instance, to assert that the days get shorter in the winter because the sun sets at noon is begging the question unless one can show that the sun sets at noon (which one might do at certain latitudes).

Another form is to "prove" the point by circular reasoning. "Since the days get shorter because the sun sets at noon, then the sun must set at noon, because the days are shorter".

There. I got that off my chest (just like the hair that used to be there but moved south).

nanstar

4,914 Posts

Wed, May 8 2013 5:10 AM

I don't understand this post Bubbadork, but I do love it.

This of course begs the question.

Am I close?

Cheers, Nan

bubbadork

984 Posts

Wed, May 8 2013 5:24 AM

You know, it's not one of those things that really bother me, like someone saying, "Can I ax you a question?" or knowing nothing about capitalization or punctuation, or using SMS abbreviations as if every letter costs a buck.

If a person wants to say, "That raises the question of ...", then they should just say that instead of trying to shoot for a 50-cent phrase that they've heard somewhere.

Thanks for the nice post. :-)