Hey what’s up Thinkers! Kathy Gibbens here…
Let’s start off today’s episode by reviewing a fallacy we covered earlier this season, the Sherlock Holmes Fallacy. Ok, do you want to hit pause real quick & see if you can remember what the Sherlock Holmes Fallacy is? The Sherlock Holmes Fallacy happens when someone concludes that a certain explanation must be true because all other explanations are simply impossible…However, they don’t realize that not ALL alternate explanations have been ruled out.
Question to ask yourself when you find yourself or someone else doing this process of elimination is this: “Are we sure we’ve included EVERY possibility?”
If you want to review or hear more about this fallacy, go back & check out Episode 152.
If you’re looking for a fun way to practice recognizing fallacies & manipulative messaging, and are wanting a fun way to have great conversations with your tweens & teens about these things, check out Crazy Thinkers! Crazy Thinkers is my monthly membership where each month, I send out a pdf with different memes, headlines, articles AND I give you questions to ask to help you & your kids think well about what you’re seeing & identify the fallacy being committed. The most recent one I just sent out was a guide on how to think about Conspiracy Theories, since we just did a few episodes on Conspiracy Theories. The whole goal is to PRACTICE what you’re learning about here on the podcast so you don’t forget what you’re hearing! Also included in Crazy Thinkers is a 10-week video course where you & your students will learn the SKILLS of thinking well so you can apply it to anything else you want to think well about! Anyways, check it out at filteritthroughabraincell.com/crazy!
Ok, peeps, let’s dive into today’s new fallacy, called Begging The Question. Begging the Question happens when someone makes a statement or argument where they assume a conclusion without actually giving any evidence for that conclusion.
Here’s an example of what this sounds like: Your younger brother, Aaron, comes to you one evening and says, “The Boogeyman is real because I saw something in my room that can only be described as the Boogie Man!” Ok, so you see he’s making a claim, or a conclusion that the boogeyman is real and he’s basing on the premise, “I saw something in my room that can only be described as the Boogie Man.” The premise assumes that the claim, “the Boogeyman is real '' is already true. So it begs the question, “is the Boogeyman a real thing or did you see something else?”
The problem behind the thinking here is that the person is using the point they’re trying to prove as an argument or piece of evidence itself. That’s not a proper argument. You have to actually have proof for the conclusion you’re coming to or wanting others to come to, you can’t just assume the conclusion. And, if this sounds a little bit familiar, it’s because Begging the Question is a form of Circular Reasoning, which we covered back in episode 13. But you are going to hear the term “begging the question” or “that begs the question” so I thought I would give this fallacy its own separate episode so you’ll be familiar with that verbiage.
Here’s another example of what Begging the Question sounds like: Your favorite aunt likes going to antique shops. She says, “Vintage furniture is better than new furniture because it’s usually made from real wood.” This statement is based on the assumption that real wood is the better material for furniture to be made out of. However, nothing in this claim explains why that’s the case, so it begs the question, “What makes real wood better than other materials?”
Question to ask yourself: “Do you have anything to back up that claim?” *repeat*
Remember: When you learn HOW to think, you will no longer fall prey to those who are trying to tell you what THEY want you to think and it all starts with asking one simple question: “Is that really true?”
