<P> Aside from being an informal fallacy depending on usage , such questions may be used as a rhetorical tool : the question attempts to limit direct replies to be those that serve the questioner 's agenda . The traditional example is the question `` Have you stopped beating your wife ? '' Whether the respondent answers yes or no , he will admit to having a wife and having beaten her at some time in the past . Thus , these facts are presupposed by the question , and in this case an entrapment , because it narrows the respondent to a single answer , and the fallacy of many questions has been committed . The fallacy relies upon context for its effect : the fact that a question presupposes something does not in itself make the question fallacious . Only when some of these presuppositions are not necessarily agreed to by the person who is asked the question does the argument containing them become fallacious . Hence the same question may be loaded in one context , but not in the other . For example , the previous question would not be loaded if it were asked during a trial in which the defendant had already admitted to beating his wife . </P>
<P> Aside from being an informal fallacy depending on usage , such questions may be used as a rhetorical tool : the question attempts to limit direct replies to be those that serve the questioner 's agenda . The traditional example is the question `` Have you stopped beating your wife ? '' Whether the respondent answers yes or no , he will admit to having a wife and having beaten her at some time in the past . Thus , these facts are presupposed by the question , and in this case an entrapment , because it narrows the respondent to a single answer , and the fallacy of many questions has been committed . The fallacy relies upon context for its effect : the fact that a question presupposes something does not in itself make the question fallacious . Only when some of these presuppositions are not necessarily agreed to by the person who is asked the question does the argument containing them become fallacious . Hence the same question may be loaded in one context , but not in the other . For example , the previous question would not be loaded if it were asked during a trial in which the defendant had already admitted to beating his wife . </P>
when did you stop beating your wife is an example of which logical fallacy
when did you stop beating your wife is an example of which logical fallacy
informal fallacy
informal fallacy