In classical rhetoric and logic, begging the question is an informal fallacy that occurs when an argument's premises assume the truth of the conclusion, instead of supporting it. It is a type of circular reasoning: an argument; this occurs in an indirect way such that the fallacy's presence is hidden, or at least not apparent. In modern vernacular usage, begging the question is used to mean "raising the question" or "suggesting the question". Sometimes it is confused with "dodging the question"; the phrase begging the question originated in the 16th century as a mistranslation of the Latin petitio principii, which translates to "assuming the initial point". The original phrase used by Aristotle from which begging the question descends is: τὸ ἐξ ἀρχῆς αἰτεῖν, "asking for the initial thing." Aristotle's intended meaning is tied to the type of dialectical argument he discusses in his Topics, book VIII: a formalized debate in which the defending party asserts a thesis that the attacking party must attempt to refute by asking yes-or-no questions and deducing some inconsistency between the responses and the original thesis.

In this stylized form of debate, the proposition that the answerer undertakes to defend is called "the initial thing" and one of the rules of the debate is that the questioner cannot ask for it. Aristotle discusses this in Sophistical Refutations and in Prior Analytics book II; the stylized dialectical exchanges Aristotle discusses in the Topics included rules for scoring the debate, one important issue was the matter of asking for the initial thing—which included not just making the actual thesis adopted by the answerer into a question, but making a question out of a sentence, too close to that thesis. The term was translated into English from Latin in the 16th century; the Latin version, petitio principii, "asking for the starting point", can be interpreted in different ways. Petitio, in the post-classical context in which the phrase arose, means assuming or postulating, but in the older classical sense means petition, request or beseeching. Principii, genitive of principium, means basis or premise.

Petitio principii means "assuming the premise" or "assuming the original point". The Latin phrase comes from the Greek τὸ ἐν ἀρχῇ αἰτεῖσθαι in Aristotle's Prior Analytics II xvi 64b28–65a26: Begging or assuming the point at issue consists failing to demonstrate the required proposition, but there are several other ways. Now begging the question is none of these. If, the relation of B to C is such that they are identical, or that they are convertible, or that one applies to the other he is begging the point at issue.... Egging the question is proving what is not self-evident by means of itself...either because predicates which are identical belong to the same subject, or because the same predicate belongs to subjects which are identical. Aristotle's distinction between apodictic science and other forms of non-demonstrative knowledge rests on an epistemology and metaphysics wherein appropriate first principles become apparent to the trained dialectician: Aristotle's advice in S. E. 27 for resolving fallacies of Begging the Question is brief.

If one realizes that one is being asked to concede the original point, one should refuse to do so if the point being asked is a reputable belief. On the other hand, if one fails to realize that one has conceded the point at issue and the questioner uses the concession to produce the apparent refutation one should turn the tables on the sophistical opponent by oneself pointing out the fallacy committed. In dialectical exchange it is a worse mistake to be caught asking for the original point than to have inadvertently granted such a request; the answerer in such a position has failed to detect. The questioner, if he did not realize he was asking the original point, has committed the same error, but if he has knowingly asked for the original point he reveals himself to be ontologically confused: he has mistaken what is non-self-explanatory to be something self-explanatory. In pointing this out to the false reasoner, one is not just pointing out a tactical psychological misjudgment by the questioner.

It is not that the questioner falsely thought that the original point, if placed under the guise of a semantic equivalent, or a logical equivalent, or a covering universal, or divided up into exhaustive parts, would be more persuasive to the answerer. Rather, the questioner falsely thought that a non-self-explanatory fact about the world was an explanatory first principle. For Aristotle, that certain facts are self-explanatory while others are not is not a reflection of the cognitive abilities of humans, it is a reflection of the structure of noncognitive reality. In short, a successful resolution of such a fallacy requires a firm grasp of the correct explanatory powers of things. Without a knowledge of which things are self-explanatory and which are not, the reasoner is liable to find a question-begging argument persuasive

Zhongba County is a county of Xigazê Prefecture in China's Tibet Autonomous Region. Located in western Tibet, it is the largest county in the prefecture. Zhongba County has a population of 18,000 and covers 43,594 square kilometers, it is prone to earthquakes and suffered a large one, 6.8 on the Richter scale, on 30 August 2008. Although the temblor left a 10 km north-south crack at the epicenter located at 31° north and 83.6° east, houses were damaged and roads blocked by falling rocks, there were no reported injuries. The county is dotted with lakes such as Ang Laren Lake and Renqingxiubu Lake. Zhongba County shares the Tibet Autonomous Region's southern border with most of western Nepal's Karnali and Dhaulagiri Zones with a border crossing into Mustang District leading through the former Lo Kingdom to its historic capital Lo Manthang. Baryang Township Labrang Township Bodoi Township Gêla Township Gyêma Township Horpa Township Lunggar Township Nagqu Township Penchi Township Barma Township Qonkor Township Rintor Township Yagra Township China National Highway 219

Podreber is a small settlement east of the town of Polhov Gradec in the Municipality of Dobrova–Polhov Gradec in the Upper Carniola region of Slovenia. It lies on the road from Ljubljana to Polhov Gradec below Kucelj Hill; the name Podreber is derived from a prepositional phrase in which the noun has lost its case ending: pod'below' + reber'slope'. The name therefore means'below the slope' and refers to the settlement's position on the south slope of Kucelj Hill. St. Elizabeth's Church in the village was first mentioned in 1526 but is older; the main altar dates from the beginning of the 18th century, the two side altars are gilded altars dating from 1625. Media related to Podreber at Wikimedia Commons Podreber on Geopedia