Circular Reasoning

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But don't go there, you'll be right back :)

bah... I must be tired... I just hit the link twice before I caught on...

Alternatively, "...CircularReasoning, but you've already been there."

On a more serious note, Circular Reasoning occurs where a number of links in a chain of reasoning are proposed, each following logically from the last, but together forming a loop: A implies B, B implies C, C implies A. If all you have to work with are A, B and C, and no way of linking them to something external to the loop, you can't prove or disprove any one of them.

An easy way out is making one of them an axiom. The other two can then be inferred from the axiom.

The quintessential Circular Reasoning: God directed the writing of the Bible, therefore the Bible is true, therefore God exists and directed the writing of the Bible.

Nice try, there, pal -- why don't you go troll around someplace where properly documented living history has no value?

{I think it is a good example to illustrate the point. Whether it was done for spiteful reasons or not can only be guessed.}

<Regardless of which side you believe, that is most certainly circular reasoning. You cannot use the bible as proof of itself. If you are trying to prove the bible is true, then everything in it automatically must be excluded from evidence, because it's the thing in question. Secondly, the bible is in no way a properly documented living history; it is a book, made by a church, with chapters/books they felt like including at the time according to the beliefs of that time-period. Some books were rejected, others made it in, that is well documented, and also quite an interesting read.>

"<...the bible is in no way a properly documented living history...>" How do you mean properly documented? It is quite astonishing, actually, how much of the history of the Bible has been verified as accurate. -- BrucePennington

What better example? Most everyone can relate to it regardless which side of the fence they occupy.

Well the OP is correct that the reasoning is circular. The implication might be that the statement is therefore not true - in the absence of actual evidence or some other more valid seasoning. Since we're only looking for an example here, it seems sufficient to assert that there exists other evidence to feed into the loop, which grounds the loop (true or false, let's not go there). This would serve as a continuation of the example, specifically "how to step out of the circular argument".

Indeed, FailureToElucidate in this case is wont to cause HolyWars. But then so is the elucidation... so maybe we do need another example.

This example is well-known, but not ideal, since the Bible neither claims that God directed its entire content, nor that its content is literal fact.

The argument above: "God directed the writing of the Bible, therefore the Bible is true, therefore God exists and directed the writing of the Bible." is a good example of bad logic. It fails on several levels. It begins with the assumption that God directed the writing of the Bible. It assumes that God is real. Therefore there is no need to bring the argument back around. It only works as "IF" "then" statements. IF God directed the writing of the Bible; THEN the Bible is true." the rest doesn't make sense because there is no need for the "therefore". The way it is originally written, God is already known to be real, and the "therefore" is redundant. -- BrucePennington

That's not valid, as any circular reasoning could be attacked in that way, not just that particular case.

After reading it again, I see your point. Thanks! BrucePennington

One of the FallaciousArguments.