Begs the Question: Update

Today I’m going to beg the question.

Often when I do radio interviews, callers ask me about the phrase begs the question. They often hear begs the question used to mean “raises the question,” and if they took a formal logic class in college or had a particularly diligent English teacher, they think the “raises the question” meaning is wrong. 

They’re right, but it’s a little more complicated than that too.

The Right Way to Use “Begs the Question”

Begs the question is a term that comes from formal logic. It’s a translation of the Latin phrase petitio principii, and it’s used to mean that someone has made a conclusion based on a premise that lacks support. (1, 2) It can be a premise that’s independent from the conclusion (3) or in a simpler form, a premise that’s just a restatement of the conclusion itself. (4,5)

(correction_with_script)

For example, let’s say Squiggly is trying to convince Aardvark that chocolate is good for you, and his argument is that chocolate grows on trees, so it must be good for you. Aardvark could rightly say there’s no proof that something is good for you simply because it grows on a tree. Some things that grow on trees are poisonous－Chinaberry tree fruit, for example. (6) So Squiggly’s argument is based on a faulty premise.

Aardvark could correctly say that Squiggly’s argument begs the question. What does growing on trees have to do with being good for you?

I remember what begs the question means by thinking that the argument raises a specific question－it begs *the* question－What’s your support for that premise? Or more informally, What does that have to do with anything? You use the phrase begs the question when people are hoping you won’t notice that their reasons for coming to a conclusion aren’t valid. They’ve built an argument on a bad foundation. The question is What’s your support for that premise?

Here’s an example of a simpler argument that also begs the question. This one just restates the conclusion as a basis for the conclusion: Chocolate is delicious because it’s yummy. Again, the question is What’s the support for your premise? If I didn’t accept that chocolate is delicious, I’m not going to accept that it’s yummy just because you say it’s delicious. They’re the same thing. It’s circular reasoning. Stop begging the question and make a better argument.

The Wrong Way to Use “Begs the Question”

Begs the question is used wrong a lot. It took me about two seconds to find examples of bad usage in the news. Many people mistakenly believe it’s OK to use the phrase to introduce a clever or obvious question. For example, a headline in The Globe and Mail reads

Dutch dominance in long track speed skating begs the question, where’s Canada?

The writer is using begs the question to mean something like “makes me wonder.”

Here’s a headline from Mother Nature Network:

New ‘Pompeii’ movie begs the question: Could Mount Vesuvius erupt again?

Again, the writer seems to think begs the question means something like “raises the question” or “leads us to ask.”

Common Usage Versus Established Meaning

This new, traditionally wrong usage is so common that the online Merriam-Webster dictionary lists it as a meaning without any kind of qualifying comment such as “nonstandard” or “slang.” (7) 

When I was working on my latest book, 101 Troublesome Words [Amazon, Barnes & Noble, Indiebound], I tried to find examples of people using begs the question the traditionally correct way, and I went through thousands of search results without finding one. 

Words and phrases do change their meanings in English. If you visit QuickAndDirtyTips.com often, you may remember my blog post from August about how the word egregious used to mean “good” but now it means “bad.” When thousands of people use a word or phrase the “wrong” way, and almost nobody is using it the “right” way, it’s a clear sign that the meaning is changing.

See How Do Words Get in the Dictionary?

My advice is to avoid using begs the question to mean “raises the question.” Reestablishing the traditional meaning of begs the question is a lost cause, but even though almost nobody will realize you’ve made an error, there’s also no compelling reason to misappropriate the phrase. If you mean “raises the question,” say “raises the question.” 

References

1. Garner, B. Garner’s Modern American Usage. Oxford: Oxford University Press. 2003, p. 91.
2. Safire, W. “ON LANGUAGE: Take My Question.” The New York Times. July 26, 1998． https://tinyurl.com/6bd2g6 (accessed March 7, 2014).
3. Cochrane, J. Between You and I. Sourcebooks, Inc.:Naperville, Illinois. 2004． p. 11-12.
4. “Fallacy: Begging the Question.” The Nizkor Project. https://tinyurl.com/3om69 (accessed March 7, 2014).
5. Brians, P. “Begs the Question.” Common Errors in English Usage. https://www.wsu.edu/~brians/errors/begs.html (accessed March 7, 2014).
6. “Poisonous Plants.” Poison and Drug Information Center, University of Arizona. https://bit.ly/1cvPgTE (accessed March 7, 2014).
7. “beg.” Merriam-Webster Online. https://www.merriam-webster.com/dictionary/beg (accessed March 7, 2014).