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.
I was told once that I was clearly not a college graduate. After some digging, he explained that I took the time to define the terms in a discussion, whereas college grads knew the definitions of words, and so didn’t take the time to agree on them.
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.
I was told once that I was clearly not a college graduate. After some digging, he explained that I took the time to define the terms in a discussion, whereas college grads knew the definitions of words, and so didn’t take the time to agree on them.
Can’t agree with him about that.