Misuse of Question
There is a great misuse, in our society, of questioning.
We are told by the cynical to question everything, so we won't be deceived. And that's fine, but anyone who blindly questions everything without trying to find the answers to the questions asked is no better than someone who blindly accepts whatever he or she is told.
To turn a critical eye on any subject without critical thought for how and where that eye should be turned is to take an implement of useful damage and wield it without direction. A scalpel in the hands of a surgeon can make precise cuts to remove deadly objects from a body, but that same scalpel in the hands of a drunken man is only a tool of death and destruction. We need to think critically about how we think critically.
We need to question what we are told, but we need very carefully to be sure we don't forget the purpose of a question. A question is not for deflecting a statement so we never have to act on it. A question is a road map to finding an answer. We need a socratic wonder, someone who is able to ask questions, but not just random words strung together with a squiggly mark at the end. Our society needs someone who can ask questions that are indeed road maps to answers. And we need that socratic wonder to be emulated by everyone else.
Proper questioning has three parts: Ask, Analyze, Accept. If you leave out any of these, you are not asking questions properly.
First, you must ask a question. What is it you want to know? How does your question frame the information you want to determine? If the question does not contain the criteria for what must be answered, it cannot lead to truth. A question may not have a known answer, but if it is a question for which no answer will fit, it is no real question. There are rhetorical questions, but they are questions whose answer lies not in the final conclusion but in the discussion. A question must have at least one acceptable answer, for if no answer can fit the question, the question is not valid.
Second, the information obtained after asking the question must be analyzed. Again, if the response to the question is not analyzed, the question has no valid answer and is no question.
We must analyze information carefully, but we must not delay excessively in our analysis. Put the facts together as quickly as possible with the minimum chance of error.
Third, when we've analyzed the information we obtained by asking valid questions, we must choose what to accept. We must accept something, so this step cannot be skipped. We must either accept that the information we were given in response to our question was accurate, or we must accept that the information was wrong and then either accept what we initially believed or accept some third belief as being the truth. For it is always the truth that we seek, because if we seek anything else, there is no point in asking a question. We should simply go toward what we seek. But it is far better to seek truth than anything else.
So, the process of asking a question is not open-ended. You cannot gain anything useful from simply asking questions like a person skipping stones into the ocean. You must also analyze the facts you are given and those you already possess, and you must accept some interpretation of the facts. Whether you want to or not, this is how the human mind works. We have a curiosity, we compare things, and we accept some interpretation. Why would anyone want to divert their mind from what it most wants: resolution of all things into accepted beliefs?
This, indeed, is the difference between questioning and mocking. Questioning does these three things; it involves asking, analyzing, and accepting. Mocking just seeks to throw doubt on things as they are presented. Always question, and never mock without questioning diligently first.
We are told by the cynical to question everything, so we won't be deceived. And that's fine, but anyone who blindly questions everything without trying to find the answers to the questions asked is no better than someone who blindly accepts whatever he or she is told.
To turn a critical eye on any subject without critical thought for how and where that eye should be turned is to take an implement of useful damage and wield it without direction. A scalpel in the hands of a surgeon can make precise cuts to remove deadly objects from a body, but that same scalpel in the hands of a drunken man is only a tool of death and destruction. We need to think critically about how we think critically.
We need to question what we are told, but we need very carefully to be sure we don't forget the purpose of a question. A question is not for deflecting a statement so we never have to act on it. A question is a road map to finding an answer. We need a socratic wonder, someone who is able to ask questions, but not just random words strung together with a squiggly mark at the end. Our society needs someone who can ask questions that are indeed road maps to answers. And we need that socratic wonder to be emulated by everyone else.
Proper questioning has three parts: Ask, Analyze, Accept. If you leave out any of these, you are not asking questions properly.
First, you must ask a question. What is it you want to know? How does your question frame the information you want to determine? If the question does not contain the criteria for what must be answered, it cannot lead to truth. A question may not have a known answer, but if it is a question for which no answer will fit, it is no real question. There are rhetorical questions, but they are questions whose answer lies not in the final conclusion but in the discussion. A question must have at least one acceptable answer, for if no answer can fit the question, the question is not valid.
Second, the information obtained after asking the question must be analyzed. Again, if the response to the question is not analyzed, the question has no valid answer and is no question.
We must analyze information carefully, but we must not delay excessively in our analysis. Put the facts together as quickly as possible with the minimum chance of error.
Third, when we've analyzed the information we obtained by asking valid questions, we must choose what to accept. We must accept something, so this step cannot be skipped. We must either accept that the information we were given in response to our question was accurate, or we must accept that the information was wrong and then either accept what we initially believed or accept some third belief as being the truth. For it is always the truth that we seek, because if we seek anything else, there is no point in asking a question. We should simply go toward what we seek. But it is far better to seek truth than anything else.
So, the process of asking a question is not open-ended. You cannot gain anything useful from simply asking questions like a person skipping stones into the ocean. You must also analyze the facts you are given and those you already possess, and you must accept some interpretation of the facts. Whether you want to or not, this is how the human mind works. We have a curiosity, we compare things, and we accept some interpretation. Why would anyone want to divert their mind from what it most wants: resolution of all things into accepted beliefs?
This, indeed, is the difference between questioning and mocking. Questioning does these three things; it involves asking, analyzing, and accepting. Mocking just seeks to throw doubt on things as they are presented. Always question, and never mock without questioning diligently first.