I believe it is generally a useful heuristic that if someone asks you a question and it seems to be true by definition, you are misinterpreting their question.
For example, if I ask you “Why are humans mortal?”, and your usual definition of “human” includes mortality then you should probably not use your usual definition in interpreting the question.
It is also a useful heuristic, if you are trying to understand how someone else answered a question, that you shouldn’t reason “But that isn’t a useful way to answer the question!” and then become confused rather than annoyed. As I said, I would readily agree to the statement, but disagreement seems defensible if only vacuously and it seems wrong to interpret it as “stupidity” (though it would certainly reveal that someone is looking for reasons they are allowed to disagree).
I believe it is generally a useful heuristic that if someone asks you a question and it seems to be true by definition, you are misinterpreting their question.
For example, if I ask you “Why are humans mortal?”, and your usual definition of “human” includes mortality then you should probably not use your usual definition in interpreting the question.
It is also a useful heuristic, if you are trying to understand how someone else answered a question, that you shouldn’t reason “But that isn’t a useful way to answer the question!” and then become confused rather than annoyed. As I said, I would readily agree to the statement, but disagreement seems defensible if only vacuously and it seems wrong to interpret it as “stupidity” (though it would certainly reveal that someone is looking for reasons they are allowed to disagree).