I'm not disputing that being overweight is (eventually) unhealthy, or that you have to pick SOME numbers and they're gonna be somewhat arbitrary.
I'm talking about proposed mechanisms/causes, and solutions here. E.g. if you say whole foods are healthy and I ask why, and you say because they make you lose weight, and I ask why they make yo…
I'm not disputing that being overweight is (eventually) unhealthy, or that you have to pick SOME numbers and they're gonna be somewhat arbitrary.
I'm talking about proposed mechanisms/causes, and solutions here. E.g. if you say whole foods are healthy and I ask why, and you say because they make you lose weight, and I ask why they make you lose weight, and you say because they're whole.
That's circular with no detour. If you add a proxy or accounting tautology in the middle, it now has a detour. You can add as many detours as you want, but at the end of the day, it has no explanatory power.
For your BMI example it would go like this:
Why is being overweight unhealthy? Because it means you have a high BMI. How does it mean you have a high BMI? Because the BMI is defined by your weight (and a static variable, your height).
The BMI does not explain WHY your are overweight, or why it's unhealthy, it's just a measure of being overweight.
I'm not disputing that being overweight is (eventually) unhealthy, or that you have to pick SOME numbers and they're gonna be somewhat arbitrary.
I'm talking about proposed mechanisms/causes, and solutions here. E.g. if you say whole foods are healthy and I ask why, and you say because they make you lose weight, and I ask why they make you lose weight, and you say because they're whole.
That's circular with no detour. If you add a proxy or accounting tautology in the middle, it now has a detour. You can add as many detours as you want, but at the end of the day, it has no explanatory power.
For your BMI example it would go like this:
Why is being overweight unhealthy? Because it means you have a high BMI. How does it mean you have a high BMI? Because the BMI is defined by your weight (and a static variable, your height).
The BMI does not explain WHY your are overweight, or why it's unhealthy, it's just a measure of being overweight.