beg the question

lao2lao2

Fowler defines \"begging the question\" as the \"fallacy of founding a
conclusion on a basis that as much needs to be proved as the conclusion
itself.\"

\"Question\" here does not mean \"a sentence in interrogative form\".
Rather, it means \"the point at issue, the thing that the person is
trying to prove\".

Common varieties of begging the question are paraphrase of the statement
to be proved (\"Telepathy cannot exist because direct transfer of thought
between individuals is impossible\"), and arguing in a circle (\"The Bible
must be true, because God wouldn't lie to us; we know God is
trustworthy, because it says so in the Bible\").

More and more, one can hear people using \"begs the question\" where
others would prefer they said, \"raises the question.\"