Law Practice
Jun. 6, 2018
I beg to differ
Please, people, I beg you to stop saying "that begs the question," unless it actually does.
Frank H. Wu
President Designate
Queens College
Frank is William L. Prosser Distinguished professor at UC Hastings College of the Law.
Please, people, I beg you to stop saying "that begs the question," unless it actually does. Nowadays so many of us invoke as idiomatic "that begs the question" to refer to any situation presenting a question in any manner. This utterance is wrong. Begging the question has a specific meaning.
Begging the question indicates that a question assumes its own answer, creating a circular argument. A proposition that must by definition be tr...
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