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Lumifer comments on Open thread, December 7-13, 2015 - Less Wrong Discussion
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On one level, yes, this is just a definition issue.
On a deeper level no, because particular answers to such questions place the phenomena into a specific framework. Notice that two answers to "is helium a molecule" arose not because two people consulted two different dictionaries. They arose because these two people are used to thinking about molecules in very different ways -- both valid in their respective domains.
In that sense this "special kind of question" could be about defining terms, but it also could be about the context within which examine the issue.
I agree that the disagreement about whether a helium atom should be considered a molecule is related to what mental framework one slots the question into. I don't think this in any way stops it being a disagreement about definitions of words. (In particular, for the avoidance of doubt, I am not taking "X is a disagreement about definitions" to imply "X is trivial" or anything of the kind.)
The physicist and chemist in Kuhn's story could -- I don't know whether they would if actually asked -- both have said something like this: "It turns out that there are a few different notions close enough together that we use the word "molecule" for all of them, and they don't all agree about what to call a helium atom". Again, this is far from what happens in most political disagreements.
For the avoidance of doubt again, I am not denying that some political disagreements are like this. For instance, there are cases where two sides would both claim to be maximizing equality, but one side means "treat everyone exactly the same" and another means "treat everyone the same but compensate for inequalities X, Y, and Z elsewhere". I suggest that this is actually best considered a disagreement about values rather than about definitions, though. (Each group prefers to define "equality" in a particular way because they think what-they-call-equality is more important than what-the-other-guys-call-equality.)
Well, yes, because in the political context "framework" very often means "value framework". However both definitions and frameworks matter -- it is still the case that the argument will get nowhere until people agree on the meaning of the words they are using.
It feels as if you may be trying to correct a mistake I'm not making. I agree that definitions matter. As I said two comments upthread:
Nope, you just have all your defensive shields up and at full power :-) I am agreeing with you here.
Full power is more dramatic than that :-).
My experience is that if someone begins "Well, yes" rather than, say, just "Yes", their intention is generally something less positive than simply agreeing with you. ("Well, yes. What kind of idiot would need that to be said explicitly?" "Well, yes, but you're forgetting about X, Y, and Z." "Well, yes, I suppose so, but I don't think that's actually quite the right question.")
I'll work on augmenting my expressions of enthusiasm :-)