Friday, April 03, 2009

Beg the question alert: Crossley

Beg the QuestionFrom James Crossley's Jesus in An Age of Terror, 36:

"Note throughout that Ristau did not really condemn those involved -- at best the odd human error here and there -- and he apparently still believes that western powers are acting with only kindness in their hearts. But with the propaganda model in mind, this begs the question, if he concedes wrongdoings then why can he not bring himself to condemn the wrongdoers or post comments on his blog, especially as he is arguably the most explicitly political biblioblogger?

6 comments:

Mike Aubrey said...

Out of curiousity, Mark, how would you respond if someone wrote,

The question begs to be asked.

Such a sentence would be both semantically well formed and formally distinct from the logical fallacy.

Mark Goodacre said...

Might be OK with that. What about you?

Brandon said...

I just ripped the page out of the book. Of course, it was on loan from the Princeton University library, but I don't think they'll mind.

James Crossley said...

Well at least *I* know what I mean! Anyway it seems like I'm in good company... ;-)

On the links/endnotes, that's a good idea. I've seen this before outside biblical studies. Of course this begs the question why that solution passaed me by.

James Crossley said...

Hang on, if we are all going to be geeky - and we are - I did qualify it with 'With the propaganda model in mind...'. Doesn't that count in my favour?

steph said...

There seem to be a few logical fallacies behind the question begging - Ristau himself, Western kindness and the propaganda model...