Opening page…
What makes a good question?
A question can invite discovery, demand a performance, or quietly decide its own answer.
109 people have answered this.
Your answer
A little context
In a classroom the question usually comes with its answer already chosen, and the only suspense is whose hand goes up. Once in a while, though, a friend asks you something over dinner and you put your fork down: you don't know what you think, and you'd like to.
Read alongside it5
ReadingThe signI have a divine or spiritual sign… It began in my childhood: a voice, and whenever it speaks it turns me away from something I am about to do, but it never encourages me to do anything.
I have a divine or spiritual sign… It began in my childhood: a voice, and whenever it speaks it turns me away from something I am about to do, but it never encourages me to do anything.
ReadingSelf-imposed immaturityEnlightenment is man's emergence from his self-imposed immaturity. Immaturity is the inability to use one's own understanding without the guidance of another.
Enlightenment is man's emergence from his self-imposed immaturity. Immaturity is the inability to use one's own understanding without the guidance of another.
ReadingA counter frictionIf the machine of government is of such a nature that it requires you to be the agent of injustice to another, then, I say, break the law. Let your life be a counter friction to stop the machine.
If the machine of government is of such a nature that it requires you to be the agent of injustice to another, then, I say, break the law. Let your life be a counter friction to stop the machine.
ReadingThe public conscienceThe law is the public conscience, by which he hath already undertaken to be guided.
The law is the public conscience, by which he hath already undertaken to be guided.
ReadingThe slave of the passionsReason is, and ought only to be the slave of the passions, and can never pretend to any other office than to serve and obey them.
Reason is, and ought only to be the slave of the passions, and can never pretend to any other office than to serve and obey them.
Nearby questions
- How do you look for something when you don't know what it is?Searching seems to require knowing what to look for, yet discovery means finding what you did not know.
- If no one can tell the difference, does it matter whether you really understand?When sounding knowledgeable becomes easy, understanding must find another way to matter.
- Should you trust experts?Most of what you know rests on someone else's word: a doctor, a textbook, a map, and now a machine that answers anything.
- How do you know any of this is real?Descartes noticed that his dreams could feel as real as his days. Now some people wonder whether the whole world is a simulation.
- Should disagreement change your mind?Someone as informed, careful and honest as you looks at the same evidence and lands on the opposite side.
