Begging The Question

One of the Fallacious Arguments where you assume what you want to prove.

Normally the assumption is disguised and not easily seen to be the target.


Usage note: "begging the question" and "raising the question" are not synonymous.


Example: "The allegations are false because a priest would never do anything like that." The deduction follows so simply from the premise that you're not doing any profound reasoning. And the premise might be wrong.


See original on c2.com