Question

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Dan

If a premise is demonstrably untrue, does it automatically beg the question?

First, I'll admit to using the phrase "begs the question" incorrectly in the past. Having just finished lesson #9, I wonder if it wouldn't always be appropriate to follow up a Begs the Question fallacy with, "That's not true because," even if only doing so in my head, so as to identify the fallacy that just occurred and plot a response.
asked on Tuesday, Dec 16, 2014 03:11:16 PM by Dan

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Answers

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Bo Bennett, PhD
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But for something to beg the question, it doesn't have to be false; it just has to be unproven. For example, if I were to say, "Why do you think police officer X (no relation to professor X) murdered that innocent man?" There are three significant assumptions here: 1) that police offer X was the one who committed the murder, 2) that it was "murder," and 3) that the man was innocent. It very well may be the case that this question contains factually incorrect information, making the entire question fallacious. However, it is also possible that the assumptions are all true. A better response would be "That has not been established yet."
answered on Tuesday, Dec 16, 2014 03:23:46 PM by Bo Bennett, PhD

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Ekadh Singh writes:

I don’t think that in your example, the asker assumes the murder is true.

posted on Tuesday, Jul 27, 2021 08:57:12 PM
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Bo Bennett, PhD
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Oops wrong place....To throw fuel onto to merit of logic viewpoint. Valid is synonymous with sound. In logic, valid is not synonymous with sound. Now that's logical, jk. Lol
answered on Friday, Sep 18, 2015 03:33:29 PM by Bo Bennett, PhD

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