Definitions
American Heritage® Dictionary of the English Language, Fourth Edition
- n. Logic The fallacy of assuming in the premise of an argument that which one wishes to prove in the conclusion; a begging of the question.
Century Dictionary and Cyclopedia
- n. In logic, the assumption of that which in the beginning was set forth to be proved; begging the question: a fallacy or fault of reasoning belonging to argumentations whose conclusions really follow from their premises, either necessarily or with the degree of probability pretended, the fault consisting in the assumption of a premise which no person holding the antagonistic views will admit.
Wiktionary
- n. philosophy, logic, uncountable The logical fallacy of begging the question.
- n. philosophy, logic, countable A particular argument which commits the fallacy of begging the question; a circular argument.
WordNet 3.0
- n. the logical fallacy of assuming the conclusion in the premises; begging the question
Etymologies
- From Latin petitio principii (literally "an assumption from the beginning"), calque of Ancient Greek τὸ ἐν ἀρχῇ αἰτεῖσθαι (to en archē aetīsthae, "to assume from the beginning"). (Wiktionary)
- Medieval Latin petītiō prīncipiī : Latin petītiō, request + Latin prīncipiī, genitive of prīncipium, beginning. (American Heritage® Dictionary of the English Language, Fourth Edition)
Examples
“It is a mere petitio principii to argue that the latter is “inspired” while the former is not, moreover, although we may be called upon to believe things beyond Reason, it is hardly fair to require our belief in things contrary to”
Lists
These user-created lists contain the word ‘petitio principii’.
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Logolepsy
"Luciferous Logolepsy is a collection of over 9,000 obscure English words. Though the definition of an 'English' word might seem to be straightforward, it is not. There exist so many adopted, deriv...
Anschauung, Areopagus, Argus, Briarean, Dei gratia, Dei judicium, Deo volente, Duecento, Foehn, Geflugelte Worte, Gegenschein, Hakenkreuz and 9230 more...
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Logical Fallacies
I know it's been done before, but I just couldn't resist having my own list--I'll be borrowing from Amberley's list of Fallacies (and others).
petitio principii, begging the question, post hoc ergo pro..., logical fallacy, ignoratio elenchi, non sequitur, amphiboly, fallacy of accent, amphibology, hypostatization, equivocation, reification and 12 more...
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jimmynewland's Words
steganography, incunabulum, dog days, geekhood, risorgimento, ab initio, slugabed, humanism, diddly-squat, doch-an-dorris, snickersnee, rictus and 198 more...
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Philosophical Jargon
Words philosophical writers use to give the illusion of technical competence, including up-trippingly specialised senses of words that have other jobs during daylight hours.
akrasia, akrates, particularism, particularist, mereology, deontology, cognitivism, naturalism, anti-naturalism, ethics, phenomenology, metaethics and 220 more...
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rememberers
prolix, ageusia, animadversion, anodyne, antic, arabesque, beadle, brachymetropia, colophon, desquamation, diaphoresis, diegesis and 3248 more...
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fallacies
argumentum ad ant..., argumentum ad bac..., argumentum ad cru..., argumentum ad ign..., argumentum ad laz..., argumentum ad log..., argumentum ad mis..., argumentum ad nov..., argumentum ad num..., argumentum ad pop..., argumentum ad ver..., bifurcation and 15 more...
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stuttermonkey's Words
disremember, suboptimal, windowsill, pickle, package, hagiography, historiography, petitio principii, ampersand, perseveration, peloton, cruft and 25 more...
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