Is one a subset of the other?
A tautology is a statement that, without analyzing any actual facts, just the statement, can be known to be true. So it’s something that’s true, but it’s often boring.
I’ve heard many different notions for what constitutes “begging the question”, so how that relates to a tautology depends on what notion you’re using.
I saw someone write the following:
“Any economist worth his salt questions Paul Krugman.”
This statement would imply that you can’t be a worthwhile economist if you agree with Paul Krugman. This is a case of begging the question. Is it also a tautology? I thought that a tautology could refer to a statement whose internal logic creates a “truth” that is only true in the context of the sentence-- in this case, a worthwhile economist is defined as questioning Krugman, therefore anyone who agrees with Krugman is not a worthwhile economist.
It looks like a No True Scotsman fallacy, or at least the set-up to one.
good point. Perhaps this isn’t begging the question after all… or is it?
I thought there would be an easy answer to this and then looked the terms up in Wikipedia.
Part of the problem is that both terms have multiple meanings. They can be the same thing as long as you’re talking about a definition/argument which is self-referential or redundant.
A good article on the topic.
That’s not a tautology, because you have to know something about Paul Krugman, and economists in general, to assess its truth. For all I know, maybe Krugman is regarded as a god among economists, in which case that statement would be false. Since it might be false, it’s definitely not a tautology, whatever else it is.
But my question is, can it be a tautology if it’s true in a subjective sense (like, with respect to the speaker’s opinion)?
If it requires a subjective interpretation then it doesn’t meet the rigorous definition of a tautology. A tautology is a statement (or argument) that *must *be true.
Either President Obama will be inaugurated for a second term, or he won’t.
In Logic 101 the classic tauology is “if p, then p.”
The classic begging of the question is “I assert p. If p, then q. Therefore q must be true. If q, then p. Therefore p is true.”
The commonality of them is found in the informal senses of both, I think. To beg the question is to assume the answer to the question and then build that assumption into the answer as if it provided support for the answer.
Classic example: “I know that the Bible is true because it says in the Bible that the Bible was inspired by God and is therefore true. Which is how I know that what I read about the Bible in the Bible is true.”
Classic example: “Communista are anti-American! I will demonstrate. Look at any communist. Now, I ask you, is this person anti-American? Of course he is, he is a Communist! Since this is true of each and every Communist, it is a universal truth that Communists are anti-American!”
A tautology is generally a more formal statement that, at least in theory, isn’t trying to make an argument so much as a definition, but which defines something as itself, which is both true and uninformative. In informal discourse you can see that this provides for a lot of overlap with begging the question.
Classic example: “to be (v.) — this is the word that in English refers to the state of being”
Classic example: “Both the revolutionary proletariat and the working class of today have a consciousness of their social class and its meaning, but in the case of today’s working class this is false conscousness which is something that they are not aware of because only those who have been freed of false consciousness can see the difference between false conscousness and an accurate valid understanding of class relations. The qualitative difference between false consciousness and true consciousness is the erroneous nature of the former and the correctness of the latter, which is something that is apparent to those in possession of the latter but is not an assessment that can be made by those in the grips of the former.”
Classic example: “The Principal’s award for meritorious citizenship shall be given to the student who through his or her conduct demonstrates the kind of conduct as a student that is worthy of the awared for meritorious citizenship”