Stop Begging the Question

I have a love-hate relationship with the internet.  I love that it gives us the ability to experience each other’s creativity, genius, insights, and stupidity.  It brings us closer.  It gives us a place to find others who share our interests, no matter how bizarre those interests may be.  (Not that I have bizarre interests.)

I have a certain sentimentality about the internet, as some of you know, because it was there for me during what would otherwise have been a very isolating time in my life, when I left Christianity.

But, and there always is a but, the internet is killing our language.

Yes, yes, I know that language always evolves over time, but the internet allows that to happen at such a rapid pace, the bad changes, ie the mistakes and misuses, do not have time to get filtered out of the emerging lexicon.

I have a long and ever-growing list of internet language pet peeves, not the least of which is “yay,” but today I am going to focus on begging the question.

In my post the other day about Afghanistan, I closed with:

That raises an obvious question.  Why are we still there, if our actions are not leading to a more peaceful Afghanistan?

The train of thought that I was following raises that question; it does not beg the question.

Why not?

Begging the question is the name of a logical fallacy.  It does not mean to raise a question, or to beg for it to be raised, yet it is often used in that context.

This frequent and unrelenting misuse raises the ire of certain circles, so much so that there is even a website called, Beg the Question: Get It Right.

Is it really such a big deal for language to evolve in this way?  I am of the same school of thought as Grammar Girl on this particular language faux pas.

In fact, that wrong usage is so common some people will argue it’s not an error anymore (7). But I’m firmly in the camp that believes it’s worthwhile to stick to the formal definition. There are plenty of phrases writers can use when they mean “makes me wonder” or “raises the question.” There’s no hole in the English language that needs to be filled, so there’s no reason to use begs the question improperly.

So, what does “beg the question” actually mean?

From The Skeptic’s Dictionary,

Begging the question is what one does in an argument when one assumes what one claims to be proving.

There are several examples, if you follow that link. Here’s one.

The following argument begs the question.

We know God exists because we can see the perfect order of His Creation, an order which demonstrates supernatural intelligence in its design.

The conclusion of this argument is that God exists. The premise assumes a Creator and Designer of the universe exists, i.e., that God exists. In this argument, the arguer should not be granted the assumption that the universe exhibits intelligent design, but should be made to provide support for that claim.

There’s plenty of useful information and examples at all of the above links to help you stop begging the question – or at least stop misusing the phrase.