There are many ways to violate the principal of rational discussion.Begging the question is a fallacy in which the conclusion is presumed to be true without any evidence other than the claim. The claim is thought of to be already valid, but no reason why the claim is true. The Epstein edition states that begging the question is “The point of an argument is to convince that a claim is true. So the premises of an argument have to be more plausible than the conclusion”.
Example:
Past-life memories of children prove that past lives exist because the children could have no other source for their memories besides having lived in the past.
This example is a fallacy because it is presumed that past lives do happen because children have past-life memories. There is no evidence proving the claim that children have had past life memories. The whole argument is invalid.
I think that Begging the Question types of fallacy occur often. Even I know that I do that. I liked the example that you gave because those types of comments just get to you. Most children can’t really remember their dreams, have long span of memories, and they usually don’t remember what they did from 3 years old and younger. So when children say that they remember their past lives. It’s interesting. When I think about your example more in depth, I get the feeling that the reason why people fall into the traps of begging the question fallacy is because it’s like trying to make sense of things. It’s like someone trying to make something make sense even though it doesn’t. I am not sure if I am making any sense right now, but yea.
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