In a debate club environment.
In: Other
Take the argument I found online;
“Wool sweaters are better than nylon because wool sweaters have a higher wool count.” There is more than one problem with this argument but the ‘begging the question’ part is that you are using an intrinsic characteristic of the premise (wool sweaters have a wool count) to prove the conclusion. You haven’t proved or even stated that a high wool count is desirable in a sweater, and if you did prove that why would you argue that it is better than nylon if that is your standard?
What people are mistaking for the informal fallacy ‘begging the question’ (informal fallacies are informal because they don’t deal with the form of the argument, they aren’t like ‘less formal’ to mean less important) is a different rhetorical device known as ‘just asking questions’. If you want an example of the ‘just asking questions’ phenomena then look no further than Tucker Carlson, it is his entire schtick. The ‘just asking questions’ device is a problem because in order to accept that argument you box into the question – whether the question is valid or logical or not, and it removes the onus on the person doing it to present actual evidence for their claim because they are ‘just asking questions’.
As is common with rhetorical devices and informal fallacy, they aren’t that if there is a valid foundation. The slippery slope informal fallacy can’t be used if the conclusion you reach is commonly understood. Like, it isn’t a slippery slope argument if you say “Don’t spread gasoline all over these wood floors you might start a fire.” There isn’t a slippery slope between spilling gasoline on wood and combustion. Similarly, if you are asking a question because evidence has guided you there; like you are looking at someone with powder residue on their hands and a divorce decree on the table and a dead wife on the floor – it is not a fallacy to ask “Say, did you kill your wife?”
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