Begging the question (Latin petitio principii, "assuming the initial point") is a type of informal fallacy in which a proposition relies on an implicit premise within itself to establish the truth of that same proposition. In other words, it is a statement that refers to its own assertion to prove the assertion. Such arguments are essentially of the form "A is true because A is true" though rarely is such an argument stated as such. Often the premise 'A' is only one of many premises that go into proving that 'A' is true as a conclusion.
The first known definition in the West is by Aristotle around 350 BC, in his book Prior Analytics, where he classified it as a material fallacy (i.e., not formal). Aristotle did not consider begging the question to be a species of circular argument, circulus in probando (Latin, "circle in proving") or circular reasoning, as do some modern authors.
Read more about Begging The Question: Definition, History, Related Fallacies, Modern Usage
Famous quotes containing the words Begging The Question, begging the question, begging the, begging and/or question:
““To my thinking” boomed the Professor, begging the question as usual, “the greatest triumph of the human mind was the calculation of Neptune from the observed vagaries of the orbit of Uranus.”
“And yours,” said the P.B.”
—Samuel Beckett (1906–1989)
““To my thinking” boomed the Professor, begging the question as usual, “the greatest triumph of the human mind was the calculation of Neptune from the observed vagaries of the orbit of Uranus.”
“And yours,” said the P.B.”
—Samuel Beckett (1906–1989)
““To my thinking” boomed the Professor, begging the question as usual, “the greatest triumph of the human mind was the calculation of Neptune from the observed vagaries of the orbit of Uranus.”
“And yours,” said the P.B.”
—Samuel Beckett (1906–1989)
“Pericles. He asks of you that never used to beg.
1st Fisherman. No, friend, cannot you beg? Here’s them in our country of Greece gets more with begging than we can do with working.”
—William Shakespeare (1564–1616)
“To me, however, the question of the times resolved itself into a practical question of the conduct of life. How shall I live? We are incompetent to solve the times. Our geometry cannot span the huge orbits of the prevailing ideas, behold their return, and reconcile their opposition. We can only obey our own polarity.”
—Ralph Waldo Emerson (1803–1882)