ec429 comments on Disguised Queries - Less Wrong

57 Post author: Eliezer_Yudkowsky 09 February 2008 12:05AM

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Comment author: ec429 16 September 2011 04:13:43PM 9 points [-]

That doesn't answer the question "Is a fœtus a person", it just supplies a definition of "person", which may or may not be relevant to any given query.

Suppose my real query is "Can a fœtus talk?" Now, just because I choose to define "person" in such a way that most "person"s can talk, and in such a way that a fœtus classes as a "person", that doesn't make the probability that a fœtus can talk any different to if I'd defined "person" differently.

The whole point of these examples of disguised queries is that if you find yourself trying to answer them, you're doing it wrong.

Suppose we call the horse's tail a leg.