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Begging the Question: 100 of the Most Important Fallacies in Western

Chapter · October 2018

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The death penalty is wrong, because killing people is immoral.

Begging the question (petitio principio – Latin for seeking the beginning) is a logical fallacy in
which the premise of an argument presupposes the truth of its conclusion; in other words, the
argument takes for granted what it is supposed to prove. This is often presented when the
conclusion is so ingrained in the mind of the speaker that it becomes the absolute truth so the
initial point is the answer. There is no evidence other than the conclusion itself. When used in
this sense, the word beg means “to avoid,” not “ask” or “lead to.” This is a circular reasoning in
which the conclusion is included in the initial point, the premises include the claim that the
conclusion is true, with no support of the argument other than its own initial statements which
are its conclusion; the circle can sometimes become “vicious” because of the never-ending
argument that resorts back the start of the initial point (a vicious cycle) (Garner 1995, 101). A
good way to understand this is the chicken and egg argument—one that will go in circles forever.
This type of reasoning typically has the following form:

Claim X assumes X is true.

Examples of this form in use would be arguments or reasoning such as:

- If such actions were not illegal, then they would not be prohibited by law.
- Circular reasoning is bad because it is not very good.
- The Bible is true because God exists, and God exists because the Bible says so.
- The rights of the minority are every bit as sacred as the rights of the majority, for the majority’s
rights have no greater value than those of the minority.
- Free speech is important because everyone should speak freely.

As one can easily see, begging the question is really just a way to say the exact same thing by
rephrasing it. Therefore it becomes circular reasoning that does not prove the issue stated.
Begging the question is not making a point made supported by any premises.

In works such as Prior Analytics and Topics, Aristotle was the first to introduce begging the
question by stating what translates to “asking the initial thing” or “asking the original point”:

Begging or assuming the point at issue consists (to take the expression in its widest
sense) of failing to demonstrate the required proposition. But there are several other ways
 in which this may happen; for example, if the argument has not taken syllogistic form at
all, he may argue from premises which are less known or equally unknown, or he may
establish the antecedent by means of its consequents; for demonstration proceeds from
what is more certain and is prior. Now begging the question is none of these… If,
however, the relation of B to C is such that they are identical, or that they are clearly
convertible, or that one applies to the other, then he is begging the point at issue...
Begging the question is proving what is not self-evident by means of itself... either
because predicates which are identical belong to the same subject, or because the same
predicate belongs to subjects which are identical.

This particular logical fallacy is very often used incorrectly in our modern speech. We hear
fallacies in our daily lives, and most of us don’t know that what they are hearing is fallacious.
Labeling an argument as “Begging the Question” is often itself using the fallacy’s name
incorrectly, and yet we take it the wrong way and accept this usage. Nevertheless this misuse has
become commonplace in advertising, media, and literature as well. However, it is worthy to note
that media are the biggest culprits of this misuse; anytime that you turn on any 24 hour news
outlet, you will almost certainly hear a news personality say to whomever is being interviewed,
“Well, this certainly begs the question,” and then insert the question brought up by the answer
previously given. What the journalist really means to say is “This prompts the question of
whatever” or “This raises the question of the actions of General So-and-so.”

This misuse also happens in often in our daily lives. Think of the conversation with a friend,
family member, or neighbor about the latest news on some celebrity.

Speaker 1: Miss Popular Actress is in court again; I can’t understand why they give her
so much coverage.
Speaker 2: Yeah, that really begs the question, why does anybody want to hear or read
about her?

Another example in common speech would be:

Timmy told me he is going to attend Big State University this fall. This begs the question,
how will he do so far away from home?

The previous examples show the utter misuse of begging the question. These examples are
nothing more than further questions being raised, issues prompted by the original information
being supplied or presented. They are not, however, showing a circular type of reasoning or
presenting the initial statement as the conclusion or fact to prove the statement.

Politics is a common place for begging the question. Politicians in a debate often beg the
question by giving answers that give the conclusion of the person speaking as a truth or fact and
never show any real proof of the matter. “Abortion is ending a life and murder is ending a life, so
abortion is murder”: that is the usual circle of that particular politically charged argument.
Another political example is “Marriage is between a man and a woman, so same-sex marriage is
not marriage.” The presupposition that marriage is between a man and woman in this statement
“proves” that anything else cannot be marriage; this indirectly states the conclusion in the initial
point. Watch any political debate, and you’ll likely see that begging the question is common
practice to avoid actually giving a concrete answer to the actual questions presented.
 References

• Garner, B.A. 1995. Dictionary of Modern Legal Usage. Oxford: Oxford University Press.
• Schiller, Ferdinand Canning Scott. Formal logic, a scientific and social problem. London:
Macmillan, 1912.

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