Begging the Question

The Fallacy of Begging the Question

To understand the fallacy of begging the question, you first need to understand validity and soundness.

For an argument to be valid, its conclusion must simply follow from the premises. For the argument to be sound, it must be both valid and true.

This argument is valid because the conclusion (that lions should be removed from the list of threatened animals) follows from the premise (that the population of lions worldwide has soared beyond 500,000). However, this argument is not sound, because the premise is not true. In fact there are only about 25,000 lions worldwide as of 2019!¹

Fig. 1 - In this case, not a pride but a "premise" of lions.

Rather than verifying the truthfulness of a premise, an arguer who begs the question assumes that premise to be true in order to draw their conclusion. However, this is faulty. If a premise is not proven to be credible, then it cannot be used to generate a valid conclusion. Thus, begging the question is a logical fallacy.

If you don’t know whether or not your premise is sound, and you use that premise to draw a conclusion, then you are committing the logical fallacy of begging the question.

Begging the Question in a Sentence

With the fallacy out of the way for now, there’s the other part of “begging the question” that needs to be addressed, which is its usage.

Here’s an example of an exchange where someone uses “it begs the question” incorrectly in a sentence.

Think back to our phrase that helps us understand begging the question, “Is that premise really true?” In this example there is no premise, no assumption being made. Here, “it begs the question” just means, “The question is.” In order to beg the question, there needs to be a line of reasoning to follow.

Here is how you would use “it begs the question” correctly in a sentence.

Here, there is a line of reasoning that includes the premise, “because the ballista can’t hit the airship,” as well as a conclusion, “take the airship over the castle walls.” Because the soundness of the premise is assumed, it begs the question.

Begging the Question Example (Essay)

Now that you understand the fallacy of begging the question and how to use it on the fly, it’s important to explore how it might crop up in your essay. Here’s an example of an essay passage that begs the question.

Can you identify it?

It begs the question, is love really so dangerous in this story?

This essay passage certainly assumes that it is. The essayist judges other passages as “unimportant” based on that assumption, and it explains why Nicol’s lover spurns him based on that assumption. However, this passage contains no support for that premise whatsoever.

Fig. 2 - Explain the story, explain your premise.

To improve upon this, the author needs to establish “the danger of love” in the story. For instance, the writer of this passage could describe the painful fates of the early romances, the arguments that characters have, and dialogue that indicates how the characters negatively perceive romantic love.

With this information in hand, the author could then explain why things happen the way they do toward the end of the book.

Here’s a checklist to help you not make the mistake.

1. Don’t skip discussing the setup of a story you analyze. If you don’t connect the dots from the start, you are making assumptions.

2. Analyze the causal relationships in the story. The better you understand why things happen in a story, the better you can explain that story.

3. Follow a line of reasoning. Make sure that any conclusion you draw has a sound premise.

4. Don’t get ahead of yourself. Take a deep breath and manage your time.

The Difference Between Circular Reasoning and Begging the Question

As you probably know, begging the question is only one of many rhetorical fallacies (logical fallacies). Some of these fallacies might appear similar at first, such as begging the question and circular reasoning. However, there are differences.

Begging the question is assuming that a premise is true in order to justify an argument.

The begged question is, “is Urza really too old to travel?”

On the other hand, circular reasoning is justifying a premise with itself.

In this example, “Urza is too old to travel” is ultimately justified by that same premise, that “Urza is too old to travel.”

That said, circular reasoning is a kind of begging the question, because “Urza is too old to travel” is assumed to be truthful and thus begs the question, “Is Urza too old to travel?” However, in practice, you will find that most examples of begging the question are not circular, and appear more like the ones earlier discussed.

¹ Olivia Prentzel, Where lions once ruled, they are now quietly disappearing, 2019.