462 FALLACIES. 



bad generalization is made to overrule all facts which 

 contradict it, is petitio principii in one of its most 

 palpable forms. 



None of the modes of assuming what should be 

 proved are in more frequent use than what are 

 termed by Bentham " question-begging appellatives ;" 

 names which beg the question under the guise of 

 stating it. The most potent of these are such as 

 have a laudatory or vituperative character. For in- 

 stance, in politics, the word Innovation. The dictionary 

 meaning of this term being merely u a change to 

 something new," it is difficult for the defenders even 

 of the most salutary improvement to deny that it is 

 an innovation ; yet the word having acquired in com- 

 mon usage a vituperative connotation in addition to 

 its dictionary meaning, the admission is always con- 

 strued as a large concession to the disadvantage of the 

 thing proposed. 



The following passage from the argument in refu- 

 tation of the Epicureans, in the second book of 

 Cicero de Finibus, affords a fine example of this sort 

 of fallacy. "Et quidem illud ipsum non nimium 

 probo (et tantum patior) philpsophum loqui de cupi- 

 ditatibus tiniendis. An potest cupiditas finiri? tol- 

 lenda est, atque extrahenda radicitus. Quis est enim, 

 in quo sit cupiditas, quin recte cupidus dici possit ? 

 Ergo et avarus erit, sed finite : adulter, verum habebit 

 modum : et luxuriosus eodern modo. Qualis ista phi- 

 losophia est, quee non interitum afferat pravitatis, sed 

 sit content a mediocritate vitiorum ?" The question 

 was whether certain desires, when kept within definite 

 bounds, are vices or not ; and the argument decides 

 the point by applying to them a word (cupiditas) 

 which implies vice. It is shown, however, in the 

 remarks which follow, that Cicero did not intend this 



