Tetronian comments on You're in Newcomb's Box - Less Wrong
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Comments (172)
No, they aren't. They are answering the question according to the standard meaning conveyed with "Why?". When we use the word 'why' we mean a variety of things along the lines of 'What purpose does this serve?' as well as sometimes 'Explain the series of events that lead up to the final state in a convenient way'.
In standard usage if someone answers 'so you don't cut yourself' they usually are not talking about anything to do with temporal relations one way or the other.
Agreed. Maybe a better way to phrase it would be:
This fully answers the question and doesn't make the temporal relation between the creation of the knife and the usage of the knife unclear.