Okay, I had to look it up, and it seems it is really called “circular reasoning.”

The fallacy: You assume to be true that which you are trying to prove. It’s also known as begging the question.

I totally SUCK at doing this, usually at the wee hours of the morning, when there is no way to stop myself from going round and round.

I don’t even know why I’m writing this, other than it is bugging me and I need to learn how to get out of my own way when thinking things through. And what is funny is quickly googling this isn’t helping any, as the examples seem to me to be more confusing than the idea in the first place!

I found this page which seems to at least put the whole mess in ways I can understand it. What I’m talking about here (this doesn’t happen to me all the time, but enough) is a component fallacy.

What is a little amusing to me is that the most common example of circular logic I keep seeing during my search is religious; i.e. “God exists.” “Why?” “Because the Bible says so.” “Why should I believe the Bible?” “Because God commanded that it be written, and it speaks the Truth.” Which goes right back to God existing.

There is plenty of begging the question and circular logic in politics, for one thing. Here is a more amusing example.

WTF am I going on about? I need to be able to look at my own little logical streams in my head more critically. I should totally be googling this stuff at 2 AM instead of lying sleeplessly wondering why I’m such a horrible person (and I must be a horrible person because only horrible persons would do what I have done).

No, I won’t put all of my fears here; trust me, this is mild compared to what I conjure in the middle of the night.