What would your perspective on abortion be if the sides were switched?

[Art Vandelay]

Scientists would be conservative on abortion, too.

There are plenty of scientists who are pro-life now. Plenty of biologists, doctors, nurses, and the like that are pro-life. There are also plenty of scientific fields that have little to nothing to do with life. Scientific education may correlate with being pro-choice, but it in no way causes one to be. The issue of when life begins is not a scientific one nor is it one science seeks to answer with certainty, it is a philosophical question that is often shaped by religious attitudes.

Likewise, I think a lot of Reasonator's question can not be answered. He's dealing in counterfactuals and we just can't know the full influence a differing social opinion would have on us. It's easy to say "I'd still believe this" but so many social factors such as religion and cultural views of  women's rights would be different. None of us can say we'd know with any certainty where we'd stand on this issue because none of us can set up an experiment to test this in isolation.

Better philosophical question, how many angels can dance on the head of a needle? Another, does God exist?

Does a set of all sets contain itself? What is the meaning of life? How much would could a woodchuck chuck if a woodchuck could chuck wood?

What is the sound of one hand clapping?

<a href="http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=L1tsCOkCoC8" target="_blank">http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=L1tsCOkCoC8</a>

[Random Gal]

This will be pretty difficult considering 1/3 of women will have abortions and 1/4 of pregnancies end in abortions.

Those are some pretty high numbers. Where did you find them?

[Sigmaleph]

My views on abortion used to be more influenced by political association, later on by philosophical considerations. Nowadays they are mostly informed by an ethical question I cannot solve to my satisfaction ("Is destroying a person ethically equivalent to preventing that person from coming into existence?"), but I strongly suspect the answer is no.

So, in the counterfactual universe where the right to abortion is a socially conservative value, I might have been pro-life for some period of time, then become pro-choice.

Better philosophical question, how many angels can dance on the head of a needle? Another, does God exist?

Does a set of all sets contain itself? What is the meaning of life? How much would could a woodchuck chuck if a woodchuck could chuck wood?

What is the sound of one hand clapping?

Five. No. No sets of sets because of Russell's Paradox. "Meaning" isn't well-defined as applied to life. Five. *Slap*

It is my firm belief that the answer to all numerical counterfactuals is five. Five what? Five units.

[Scotsgit]

It wouldn't change my beliefs one bit, I'm pro-choice and that's not going to change.

Then again, both sides of the Political spectrum have things that I agree with. 

[MadCatTLX]

Scientists would be conservative on abortion, too.

There are plenty of scientists who are pro-life now. Plenty of biologists, doctors, nurses, and the like that are pro-life. There are also plenty of scientific fields that have little to nothing to do with life. Scientific education may correlate with being pro-choice, but it in no way causes one to be. The issue of when life begins is not a scientific one nor is it one science seeks to answer with certainty, it is a philosophical question that is often shaped by religious attitudes.

Likewise, I think a lot of Reasonator's question can not be answered. He's dealing in counterfactuals and we just can't know the full influence a differing social opinion would have on us. It's easy to say "I'd still believe this" but so many social factors such as religion and cultural views of  women's rights would be different. None of us can say we'd know with any certainty where we'd stand on this issue because none of us can set up an experiment to test this in isolation.

Better philosophical question, how many angels can dance on the head of a needle? Another, does God exist?

Does a set of all sets contain itself? What is the meaning of life? How much would could a woodchuck chuck if a woodchuck could chuck wood?

What is the sound of one hand clapping?

You can clap with one hand (albeit not very loud or well) by slapping the palm of the respective hand with the fingers of said hand. Curl your fingers in such a way that the last joint doesn't bend.

[Sigmaleph]

See Art Vandelay's Simpsons clip above.

[Witchyjoshy]

That was the clip I was referencing, too.  I just knew people would immediately think of that scene

[Sour Grapes]

The sound of one hand clapping is CL.  You need the other hand to make the AP sound.

[TheReasonator]

Likewise, I think a lot of Reasonator's question can not be answered.

I agree it can not be answered, definitively. But one is not helpless to answer the question. It can be based on educated guess and inference and answering such questions can help to understand why one stands for what one stands for and may even lead to more informed stances.