As A Metaphor, It's Maybe a 3-and-a-Half

Laurence Horn laurence.horn at YALE.EDU
Fri Aug 1 15:05:11 UTC 2008


At 11:08 AM -0400 7/23/08, Mark Mandel wrote:
>But a quick look at the first page of ghits, with snippets, for "begs
>the question whether" (in quotes) suggests that most of them are in
>the sense 'raise the question'.
>
>m a m

(Sorry, just getting around to my back mail.)

Indeed, I'd expect virtually all of the hits for "begs the question
whether" to be in that sense.  The historically original sense of
"begs the question" would never be followed by "whether"--or in most
cases by anything other than a period, as in "Your argument begs the
question."

LH

>
>On Wed, Jul 23, 2008 at 9:42 AM, Laurence Horn <laurence.horn at yale.edu> wrote:
>>  Well, I agree that many use "beg the question" for "raise the
>>  question".  But a google count is not going to distinguish between
>>  those that use the former locution in the newer meaning (synonynous
>>  with 'raise the question') and those who use it in the original
>>  sense, that of philosophers going back to Aristotle, for the "petitio
>>  principii" fallacy alluding to circularity of reasoning by assuming
>>  the conclusion in arguing for it.  I did say "some would they the
>>  same", not that all would.
>>
>>  LH
>
>------------------------------------------------------------
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