In a debate club environment.
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I always thought the phrase begs the question meant your opponent brought up an idea or concept so obvious/ridiculous that the follow on question/retort is obvious
It’s a great debate tactic. It’s just horrible reasoning because it assumes your premise is already true by making the conclusion act as proof of the premise. But it’s a fantastic tactic to win an argument.
Just for clarity, “begging the question” is old timey sounding English meaning “in want of a question” or “lacking a question.” It’s a translation of a Latin phrase that was a translation of a Greek phrase that was a reference to a classical Greek style of debate/rhetorical game. The goal was to get somebody to agree to a basic premise by playing twenty questions, and they could only reply with yes or no. The questioner lost if they asked a question that had an unsupported underlying premise; they forgot to ask the question that would have established that fact.
Almost nobody uses it correctly (because classical education is almost non-existent these days), using it instead to mean “raises the question,” so look out for that.
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