vicious circle

Noun

vicious circle (plural vicious circles)

1. A situation in which the response to one problem creates a chain of problems, each making it more difficult to solve the original one.
   • Meanwhile street congestion grows worse and the vicious circle tightens of private motor-cars which impede L.T.E. buses in Central London and of exasperated bus travellers who therefore take to using their own cars.1961 November, “Talking of Trains: London Transport in 1960”, in Trains Illustrated, page 656

   Synonyms:

   vicious cycle

2. A fallacy in which the premise is used to prove a conclusion which is then used to prove the premise.
   • But historical materialism cannot tell us why one is important and not the other, except on the ground that it is able to account for the latter-and this is clearly a vicious circle.1978 [1976], Leszek Kołakowski, translated by P[aul] S[teven] Falla, Main Currents of Marxism, volume I: The Founders, Oxford: Clarendon Press, translation of Główne nurty marksizmu: powstanie (in...

   Synonyms:

   begging the question, circular argument, petitio principii