"Have you stopped telling lies?" This type of question commits which kind of…

CONCEPT: In logic, a complex question fallacy occurs when a question embeds an unproved assumption and pressures the respondent to answer while accepting that assumption.

Such a question often hides an earlier question inside the present one, so a simple yes/no answer can make the hidden premise appear admitted.

APPLICATION: The question asks whether the person has stopped telling lies. Before any answer is given, it assumes that the person was telling lies earlier.

A yes answer accepts that the lying happened in the past, while a no answer can suggest that it is still continuing; both responses are trapped by the built-in assumption.

CONTRAST:

• Fallacy of Ambiguity concerns unclear wording with more than one possible meaning; the wording here is not faulty because of multiple meanings.

• Fallacy of Equivocation requires a key term to shift meaning within an argument; no key term changes its sense here.

• Fallacy of Accident misapplies a general rule to an exceptional case; this question is not applying a rule to an exception.

Result: the question commits the Fallacy of Complex Question.