5. Logical Fallacies: Complex Question

The Complex Question Fallacy

Four is the complex question. This is the interrogative form of begging the question. When the arguer attempts to persuade by asking a loaded question. You've probably heard this before. A classic example is, have you stopped beating your wife?

Imagine getting asked that question either a yes or no answer would seem to imply that the person is beating his wife, which may not be the case. You know, I, yeah. When have you stopped beating your wife?

Any answer to that question assumes that you are beating your wife. So it's a complex question. It should be broken up in two parts. The question is complex, should be divided into two questions. First would be, did you ever beat your wife?

And the second would be, if so, have you now stopped doing this? Right? Do you see the difference? You have to, you have to cut the dose. It's, it's two questions in one. And your job is to listen to what they say and try to separate those things out so that they don't pass this by you.

How to Respond to Loaded Questions

A good example of this would be, so you're going to vote for that incompetent candidate, right? So he's assuming that the person's going to vote and the vote that he makes is an incompetent candidate, right?

Whereas he should separate those two things and say, well, are you going to vote? Yes. Who are you going to vote for? Right? Those are two different things. So if the guy says, no, I'm not going to vote, vote for that person.

He's, he's assuming that it's an incompetent candidate because it's baked into the same question. You've got to separate those two things. Another example would be if the world is so young, then why does it look so old?

Distinguishing the Age of the Earth from Appearances

If the world is young, then why does it look so old? They're assuming, okay, again, it's two different, two different questions. You have to break that out. Why do you have, why do you, what is your reasoning behind why the earth is young?

What is your facts for why the earth looks so old? Those are two different questions. You want to separate those two out when talking with somebody.