This one isnât actually a pet peeve of mine, but my husbandâs. However, I think itâs an interesting one so Iâm sharing it today.
Before I met my husband, I thought, like many others, that âbegging the questionâ was the same as âraising the questionâ â like, âItâs Donut Friday, which begs the question â why am I not eating a donut right now?â It turned out, thatâs totally incorrect.
âBegging the questionâ is actually a logical fallacy. Sounds complicated, but basically, begging the question is a statement that assumes its conclusion is proven correct without any evidence. Like this:
âIf donuts werenât delicious, then everyone wouldnât eat them.â
In this sentence, the assumption is being made that its conclusion â everyone eats donuts â is true, without any proof of that. Just stating something doesnât make it true. Itâs also using that assumption as evidence that donuts are delicious. For these reasons, this sentence is begging the question.
Posted in Spelling & Grammar.