(From Wikipedia) To "beg the question" (also called petitio principii) is to attempt to support a claim with a premise that itself restates or presupposes the claim.[6] It is an attempt to prove a proposition while simultaneously taking the proposition for granted.

When the fallacy involves only a single variable, it is sometimes called a hysteron proteron[7][8][9] (Greek for "later earlier"), a rhetorical device, as in the statement:

    "Opium induces sleep because it has a soporific quality."[10]