Which is more important: the question or the answer?

Benj96

I find that there is a strange paradox between the “question - answer axis.” Because, for a start in order to construct a question one must have some set of answers already - “a priori” knowledge of some sort - a set of assumptions.

When i ask “Why is the sky blue?” I am assuming the sky is in fact blue.
The question seems reasonable because basic observation by any regular individual suggests so. But a scientist would understand that this question is inaccurate and a better one would be “Why does the sky ‘appear’ to be blue?”

If all questions require prior knowledge - and all prior knowledge is in its own right answers to other questions - then everything is an assumption: both the question and the answer. We have this weird loop going on.
This is typical of the annoying three year old in the “why phase” - why are we going to the shop, because we need food, why do we need food, because we have to live, what is living? And usually by the time the kid has reached the metaphysical or philosophical someone tells them to be quiet

Let’s take an example of a question which seems wrong but is actually correct - opposite to the “why is the sky blue” one.

“Why is ice-cream warm?” Most people would be like what the hell ice-cream is freezing. Because again they are basing the answer on subjective experience.

But ice cream is just below 273 Kelvin which is safe to safe - fairly thermally active in the grand scheme of things. The answer would be ice cream is relatively warm because the planet is quite a warm place in the universe and that’s where we find ice cream.

So basically, it seems the correctness of answers is determined by the correctness of questions? Are either more important that the other?

Jack Cummins

↪Benj96

My answer to you comes after I received a reply on another thread that I seem focused on questions, and that, surely, answering them is more important. I am aware that I ask a lot of questions and look for answers, so I was interested in what you wrote, as I do believe that questions and potential answers are linked in such a complex way.

It does seem that potential answers are so dependent on what questions we ask. The forms which the question take are a way of framing and focusing. It also seems likely that the questions which we ask arise amidst the perspective and scope of our thinking. So, it is probably about the evolution of our questioning and answers arising together in an organic way. It may not that breaking down the parts of questions and answers and reformulating them is important in the development of our thought. On this basis, I would argue that the questions and answers are probably of equal importance.

tim wood

Questions can be nonsensical. Or they can be sensible/meaningful. Considering only the latter, any question either presupposes its answer or in the case where no answer is presupposed, the question presupposes that there is an answer. Algebraically one might almost represent the question as a very general function f(x), with the associated y being the called the answer: f(x) => y.

A smart fellow noted that an answered question does not cease to be a question when answered, it merely ceases to be an unanswered question.

And to be sure, most, probably all, questions and answers as articulated are incomplete as to complete specification. Implied but unstated in your question about ice cream is a the set of criteria under which both question and answer are understood to fall and by which they both find sense.

Both, then, are features of language and function within language. Language in its turn allows for great freedom in the functioning of questioning and answering.

Fooloso4

The answer is: the question.

180 Proof

A question is ignorance made visible.

An answer is ignorance concealed.

That the OP questions which has priority shows what, on pain of vicious circularity, should not be said.

Manuel

If all questions require prior knowledge - and all prior knowledge is in its own right answers to other questions - then everything is an assumption: both the question and the answer. We have this weird loop going on. — Benj96

Our best bet of answering some questions, is to have a range of criteria that allows for better or more accurate answers. What these criteria include, depends on the phenomenon you are looking at. Getting an answer in manifest (ordinary, lived-life) reality is quite different from getting an answer in science, it seems to me. But in either case, any answer we feel worthy of the name has to be "on the right track" for us, otherwise, how would we know what to do?

We can also frame words in a question-like manner, such as: Why are we able to think? Why are there many languages and not one? But such questions may not have answers.

When we get to science, what seems to be happening is that there is some kind of convergence between our mental faculties and certain aspects of the mind independent world. So no matter which questions we ask, the answer must come from us and we then apply it to the world.

But we could also be in stuck in a situation in which we can do no more than give approximate answers and are prevented from getting better answer because we lack the necessary capacities to find such answers. Perhaps to a Martian, the problem in unifying quantum mechanics with general relativity is trivial.

But reality includes includes anything we can think of. So, a first approach would be to say that a good question will hone in on those aspects of reality which you may want to clear up, while eliminating as much "noise" as possible. There's no guarantee, of course.

The topic of "innate knowledge" is fascinating, but extremely obscure.

TheMadFool

Questions are like molds. We make them (molds/questions) and we fill 'em up (with molten metal/answers) The casting is only as good as the mold, the answer is only as good as the question. Each type of question corresponds to a particular mold and the answers are the castings that can be made with given molds. As is obvious to you at this point, the castings/answers are limited by the questions/molds - there's not much the molten metal can do but assume the shape of the mold, the answer is, even if valuable, restricted, severely so, by the question. To make the long story short, if we're to feel a sense of accomplishment as a metal caster, we need to produce high quality molds i.e. questions are what matter, not the answers.

Apollodorus

If we follow Plato and others who believe that learning is really to recall and remember, a process that takes place within us, then the question may be said to be more important than the answer as it stimulates the inner learning processes. But we can't really answer the question unless and until we know what is meant by "more important" - in what sense, to whom, etc.

Tom Storm

A smart fellow noted that an answered question does not cease to be a question when answered, it merely ceases to be an unanswered question. — tim wood

Very nice. The important questions are often the ones we think we have provided good answers to.

SpaceDweller

I would say, If the question is complex such that there is no universal explanation then the question is more important.

Otherwise it's all about forming a great answer.

Which is more important: the question or the answer?

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