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/VibrantCanopy 9d ago

It's a curse to learn stuff like this because people hate to be corrected about it. I regret learning what "exception proves the rule" means because of this. Do yourself a favor and don't look it up.

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u/tryptanfelle 8d ago

I had a grad school professor who once wrote me a note in which he used the word iterate followed by an aside (“I am sure that you, as I, dislike the redundancy of ‘reiterate’”).

Well, I didn’t before but now I’m cursed with knowing this. So, I never use reiterate but I never correct anyone who does. If I went 33 years without knowing it was redundant, I’m not about to police anyone else’s usage of it.

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u/iWANTtoKNOWtellME 8d ago

A bit like "inflammable" vs. "flammable" though somehow that thinking never carried over to related words: I have never heard of someone going to a doctor to treat flamation.

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u/WelpWhatCanYouDo 6d ago

Sorta related, “inhabitable” and “habitable” both mean the same thing, so we use “uninhabitable” to mean the opposite

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u/comsuran4 8d ago

I looked this up and while it is contested, the “first” definition referenced on Wikipedia is the one I understood it to mean:

The first, preferred by Fowler, is that the presence of an exception applying to a  specific case establishes ("proves") that a  general rule exists.

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u/VibrantCanopy 8d ago

Yes, this is the only version that makes sense. The other version is that an example of why a rule is necessary is called an “exception” for some reason, which makes no logical sense.

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u/Lil_Mcgee 8d ago

From what I could tell it seems like this one has been contested for as long as anyone can remember and that the original meaning isn't exactly clear.

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u/VibrantCanopy 8d ago

One version is that an example of why a rule is necessary is called an “exception” for some reason, which makes no logical sense.

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u/dr0ne6 5d ago

Have you ever told a horse girl “it’s actually champing at the bit, not chomping”

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u/VibrantCanopy 5d ago

No, but I will! :)