question the question
verb1
To ask that a proposed question's presuppositions be explicitly justified, especially as a preliminary to answering it, for example a complex question or loaded question.
- To say that a question is fallacious is to say that it is objectionable to the answerer because it is constructed to force him to accept a proposition that he should not. This problem is compounded if the question is also semantically complex. A semantically complex question is one that contains a connective, ‘and’, ‘or’, or ‘if–then’ in its presupposition. Once again, the answerer must question the question by requesting that the propositions in the presupposition be separated into units that he can reasonable deal with.1989, Douglas N. Walton, Informal Logic: A Handbook for Critical Argumentation, →ISBN, page 58, →ISBN:
- Related terms
- beg the question