Definitions
from The American Heritage® Dictionary of the English Language, 5th Edition.
- noun The fallacy of assuming in the premise of an argument that which one wishes to prove in the conclusion; a begging of the question.
from The Century Dictionary.
- noun 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.
from Wiktionary, Creative Commons Attribution/Share-Alike License.
- noun philosophy, logic, uncountable The logical
fallacy ofbegging the question . - noun philosophy, logic, countable A particular
argument which commits the fallacy of begging the question; acircular argument .
from WordNet 3.0 Copyright 2006 by Princeton University. All rights reserved.
- noun the logical fallacy of assuming the conclusion in the premises; begging the question
Etymologies
from The American Heritage® Dictionary of the English Language, 4th Edition
[Medieval Latin petītiō prīncipiī : Latin petītiō, request + Latin prīncipiī, genitive of prīncipium, beginning.]
from Wiktionary, Creative Commons Attribution/Share-Alike License
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").
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