Begging the question ( Latin petitio principii, " assuming the initial point ") is a type of logical fallacy in which a proposition relies on an implicit premise within itself to establish the truth of that same proposition.

Thus, insofar as petitio principii refers to arguing for a conclusion that has already been assumed in the premise, this fallacy consists of " begging " the listener to accept the " question " ( proposition ) before the labor of logic is undertaken.

Such rhetorical devices, discussed in more detail below, are: " ignoring the question " to divert argument to unrelated issues using a red herring ; making the argument personal ( argumentum ad hominem ) and discrediting the opposition's character, " begging the question " ( petitio principi ), the use of the non-sequitur, false cause and effect ( post hoc ergo propter hoc ), bandwagoning ( everyone says so ), the " false dilemma " or " either-or fallacy " in which the situation is oversimplified, " card-stacking " or selective use of facts, " false equivalence ", and " false analogy ".

In the 20th century, Princeton University professor Peter Singer argued that Bentham's conclusion is often dismissed by an appeal to a distinction that condemns human suffering but allows non-human suffering, typically " appeals " that are logical fallacies ( unless the distinction is factual, in which case the appeal is just one logical fallacy petitio principii ).

This fallacy can be also confused with petitio principii, begging the question, which offers a premise no more plausible than, and often just a restatement of, the conclusion.

On the one hand, those discussions of the relativist fallacy which make the fallacy out to be identical to relativism ( e. g., linguistic relativism or cultural relativism ) are themselves committing a commonly-identified fallacy of informal logic, namely, begging the question against an earnest, intelligent, logically-competent relativist.

This fallacy should be distinguished from that of begging the question, which offers a premise the plausibility of which depends on the truth of the proposition asked about, and which is often an implicit restatement of the proposition.

When the fallacy of begging the question is committed in a single step, it is sometimes called a hysteron proteron, as in the statement " Opium induces sleep because it has a soporific quality ".

When the fallacy of begging the question is committed in more than one step, it is sometimes referred to as circulus in probando or reasoning in a circle but incorrectly so, if this fallacy is considered under the definition Aristotle gave in Prior Analytics.

On this formulation, the very name " relativist fallacy " begs the question against anyone who earnestly ( however mistakenly or not ) holds that there are no " objective facts.

Aside from being a logical fallacy, such questions may be used as a rhetorical tool: the question attempts to limit direct replies to be those that serve the questioner's agenda.

Thus, these facts are presupposed by the question, and in this case an entrapment, because it narrows the respondent to a single answer, and the fallacy of many questions has been committed.

The fallacy relies upon context for its effect: the fact that a question presupposes something does not in itself make the question fallacious.

Ignoratio elenchi, also known as irrelevant conclusion, irrelevant thesis or fallacy of distraction, is the informal fallacy of presenting an argument that may in itself be valid, but does not address the issue in question.

Moore's open question argument against what he considered the naturalistic fallacy was largely responsible for the birth of meta-ethical research in contemporary analytic philosophy.

Begging the question is similar to the complex question or fallacy of many questions: questioning that presupposes something that would not be acceptable to everyone involved.

Asimov points out that this question is the logical fallacy of the pseudo-question.

If the two possibilities in question are mutually exclusive, this is not a logical fallacy.

Molière had famously parodied this fallacy in Le Malade imaginaire, where a quack " answers " the question of " Why does opium cause sleep?

In this use of equivocation, the word " light " is first used as the opposite of " heavy ", but then used as a synonym of " bright " ( the fallacy usually becomes obvious as soon as one tries to translate this argument into another language ).

Because the " middle term " of this syllogism is not one term, but two separate ones masquerading as one ( all feathers are indeed " not heavy ", but it is not true that all feathers are " bright "), this type of equivocation is actually an example of the fallacy of four terms.

Moore stated that a naturalistic fallacy is committed whenever a philosopher attempts to prove a claim about ethics by appealing to a definition of the term " good " in terms of one or more natural properties ( such as " pleasant ", " more evolved ", " desired ", etc.

Moore stated that a naturalistic fallacy is committed whenever a philosopher attempts to prove a claim about ethics by appealing to a definition of the term " good " in terms of one or more natural properties ( such as " pleasant ", " more evolved ", " desired ", etc .).

But the statements do not give the meaning of the term " yellow ", and ( Moore argues ) to confuse them with a definition of " yellow " would be to commit the same fallacy that is committed when " Pleasure is good " is confused with a definition of " good ".

" The first is the fallacy of " reification ", which is " our tendency to convert abstract concepts into entities " such as the intelligence quotient ( IQ ) and the general intelligence factor ( g factor ), which have been the cornerstones of much research into human intelligence.

The second fallacy is " ranking ", which is the " propensity for ordering complex variation as a gradual ascending scale.

The sunk cost fallacy is in game theory sometimes known as the " Concorde Fallacy ", referring to the fact that the British and French governments continued to fund the joint development of Concorde even after it became apparent that there was no longer an economic case for the aircraft.

In the classic distinction among material, psychological, and logical fallacies, special pleading most likely falls within the category of psychological fallacy, as it would seem to relate to " lip service ", rationalization and diversion ( abandonment of discussion ).

A mid-19th-century parable, the " Parable of the Broken Window ", exposes a fallacy in economic thinking.

Berlin saw Hamann as having recognised as the rationalist's Cartesian fallacy the notion that there are " clear and distinct " ideas " which can be contemplated by a kind of inner eye ", without the use of language – a recognition greatly sharpened in the 20th century by Wittgenstein's private language argument.

Post hoc ergo propter hoc, Latin for " after this, therefore because of this ", is a logical fallacy ( of the questionable cause variety ) that states " Since that event followed this one, that event must have been caused by this one.

Instead of indulging in the " ridiculous, idiotic and tragic fallacy of ' race ,' which a minority of the earth's population has deluded itself during the past century ", it was time for all Americans ( black and white ) to " renounce their race ".

* " Archaeology professor debunks claims for ancient rock structures as pseudoscientific fallacy ", BU Bridge, 1 February 2002, Boston University

The fallacy in the argument can be illustrated through the use of an Euler Diagram: " A " satisfies the requirement that it is part of both sets " B " and " C ", but if one represents this as an Euler diagram, it can clearly be seen that it is possible that a part of set " B " is not part of set " C ", refuting the conclusion that " all Bs are Cs ".

Central to process theory is the rigorous avoidance of the " historical fallacy ", also known as the " psychological fallacy ".

Mr. Richard Preston, executive director of the New Hampshire State Planning and Development Commission, in his remarks to the Governors Conference on Industrial Development at Providence on October 8, 1960, warned against the fallacy of attempting to attract industry solely to reduce the tax rate or to underwrite municipal services such as schools when he said: `` If this is the fundamental reason for a community's interest or if this is the basic approach, success if any will be difficult to obtain ''.

Affirming the consequent, sometimes called converse error, is a formal fallacy, committed by reasoning in the form:

The following is a more subtle version of the fallacy embedded into conversation.

Recent historians using census data have shown that is a fallacy.

Duality with pluralism is considered a logical fallacy.

However, this argument has been described as an example of the fallacy of a statistical confounding effect ; it is now known that a herpesvirus, potentiated by HIV, is responsible for AIDS-associated KS.

He rejects the idea of the naturalistic fallacy as the idea that ethics is in some free-floating realm, writing that the fallacy is to rush from facts to values.

: Compare, for example, such occasions for fallacy as are supplied by " Epimenides is a liar " or " That surface is red ," which may be resolved into " All or some statements of Epimenides are false ," " All or some of the surface is red.

The final paradox attacks presumptions involved in a proposition, and is related to the syllogistic fallacy.

His essay is sometimes regarded as an example of the fallacy of hypostatization.

This is a fallacy.

Moore's argument for the indefinability of “ good ” ( and thus for the fallaciousness of the “ naturalistic fallacy ”) is often called the Open Question Argument ; it is presented in § 13 of Principia Ethica.

Bertrand Russell noted: " The argument does not, to a modern mind, seem very convincing, but it is easier to feel convinced that it must be fallacious than it is to find out precisely where the fallacy lies.

Godwin's law does not claim to articulate a fallacy ; it is instead framed as a memetic tool to reduce the incidence of inappropriate hyperbolic comparisons.

The Gambler's fallacy, also known as the Monte Carlo fallacy ( because its most famous example happened in a Monte Carlo Casino in 1913 ), and also referred to as the fallacy of the maturity of chances, is the belief that if deviations from expected behaviour are observed in repeated independent trials of some random process, future deviations in the opposite direction are then more likely.