Blame the person who chose to translate "petition principii" so terribly.
No one in isolation would interpret the Modern English phrase "begs the question" as meaning "assumes the desired conclusion as a premise"; the natural, "naive" interpretation is that it's synonymous with "raises the question". So why blame the reader for the translator's mistake?
If you need a translation of "petitio princippi", maybe you can use "assumes the conclusion" or "takes $premise for granted" instead?
I agree that "begs the question" is an awkward way of saying "assumes the conclusion", but it is also an awkward way of saying "raises the question". As the Mad Hatter sagely observed, one should say what one means.
I find the "wrong" usage very intuitive and vivid, while the "correct" usage is very unclear in its relation to its meaning. According to wikipedia the "correct" usage stems from a mistranslation, so maybe it is about time to stop saying "beg the question", when you really mean that someone is "assuming a point or conclusion", although honestly, I have never encountered this usage.
I suppose that begs the question: does it even mean "to assume a point" anymore?
This mini-thread might remind us that most of us make spelling, grammatical and usage errors, we usually understand anyway, and we should usually forgive and forget.
Said as an old person who makes more mistakes by the day, and cares less.
It's not a misuse. It's the correct usage. The notion that "begging the question" being used as a piece of debating jargon, is the only possible use or arrangement of those words, is frankly bizarre.
I really wish this foolish "correction" would just go away.
It bothers me too. The really bad news for American English is that the latest edition of Garner's Modern Usage rates this sense of "beg the question" at "Language Change Index: 4" which means "ubiquitous but..."
No one in isolation would interpret the Modern English phrase "begs the question" as meaning "assumes the desired conclusion as a premise"; the natural, "naive" interpretation is that it's synonymous with "raises the question". So why blame the reader for the translator's mistake?
If you need a translation of "petitio princippi", maybe you can use "assumes the conclusion" or "takes $premise for granted" instead?