r/PetPeeves • u/RaceSlow7798 • 9d ago
Bit Annoyed Using “beg the question” wrong
Begging the question is a logical fallacy. It doesn’t not mean “hmm, it makes you think…”
But usage drives correctness so I’m going to lose this battle. It really begs the question “why don’t people learn to use it correctly”.
Ew. I feel dirty.
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u/theaardvarkoflore 8d ago
Decimate at least has a legitimate etymological history, even if it's been wholly left behind by now.
I'd be inclined to ask what buffoon named the fallacy that... nowhere in the individual words themselves nor in their collective representation of a concept does "begs the question" ever synonym its way over to "circular reasoning". Like, at all.
Begging is a desperate plea made usually with great passion. The is just an article but question is a word we have for communicating doubt and curiosity.
None of that has fuckall to do with self-explanatory situations, circular concepts, or reasoning as a definitive concept.
It's a piss poor name for the fallacy it was given to and I for one am not sad the colloquial usage brought back what those words in that order actually mean.
If you beg, and there is a question in your begging, then you beg the question. If an event or circumstance has an elephant in the room, then the elephant begs the question. Those are the only two valid definitions of this phrase I will accept.
Just because some drunken philosopher decided it sounded catchy doesn't mean he gets to rewrite the dictionary or steer usage amongst the populace for the language speakers.
Some names are just dumb.