I'm sorry, but it does NOT beg the question...

In college I took a philosophy class (which I enjoyed perhaps a little too much), in which we learned a variety of rhetorical fallacies and argument techniques. Among these was a strategy called "begging the question," (also known as circular reasoning) which basically means assuming the truth of ones premise in order to prove ones proposition, but providing no argumentative evidence. A simple (though not brilliant) example is:

• Person 1: Bob is mad right now.
• Person 2: How do you know?
• Person 1: Well, because he is really angry.

In recent usage, however, you may have noticed that "begging the question" is turning up everywhere--and not as a rhetorical fallacy. Rather, we hear people (primarily journalists and public personalities) say something like, "And that begs the question.... (insert question here)" What they are really saying is that there's a question which we should be asking, related to whatever topic they are discussing. No begging. Just a further, related inquiry.

I'm not sure why this, of all usage blunders out there, bothers me so much. Perhaps because I turned my brain a little inside out to understand just what this fallacy was in the first place, back in those college philosophy days. It could be a microscopic remnant of my need to be right about things (which mostly disappeared after taking the Landmark Forum). Whatever it is, I get positively agitated whenever I hear otherwise articulate people throwing the phrase around incorrectly.

Inevitably, I'll toss a sarcastic comment back at the television, the instant something errantly "Begs the question...."

"No sir. I'm afraid it doesn't."

:P

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I've progressed so much

Allow me to indulge in

A mite of judgment