Page 1 of 1
Why ask unanswerable questions?
Posted: Thu Feb 08, 2018 12:30 am
by commonsense
Is this what philosophy means to you--unanswerable questions? Is it worthwhile to search for a truth that cannot be found? How can we know that a question is unanswerable or that a truth cannot be found? How would we even know we arrived upon a definitive answer if there were one? Or is it merely that some questions have no final answer? Once begun, can inquiry ever end?
Re: Why ask unanswerable questions?
Posted: Thu Feb 08, 2018 1:58 am
by Greta
I don't think there is an answer to the question you ask, CS.
'Tis but one more of life's mysteries to keep us either perpetually amused or amusingly perplexed.
Re: Why ask unanswerable questions?
Posted: Thu Feb 08, 2018 2:17 am
by Philosophy Explorer
commonsense wrote: βThu Feb 08, 2018 12:30 am
Is this what philosophy means to you--unanswerable questions? Is it worthwhile to search for a truth that cannot be found? How can we know that a question is unanswerable or that a truth cannot be found? How would we even know we arrived upon a definitive answer if there were one? Or is it merely that some questions have no final answer? Once begun, can inquiry ever end?
I find such questions stimulating and what seems unanswerable may, in reality, be answerable.
PhilX

Re: Why ask unanswerable questions?
Posted: Thu Feb 08, 2018 2:19 am
by Dubious
Philosophy it turns out is less about truth than our perceptions or simulacrum of it. It's like attempting to look into a truth mirror which only reflects distortions to a greater or lessor degree. Confusion causes complexity...or should that be convexity.
Re: Why ask unanswerable questions?
Posted: Thu Feb 08, 2018 2:27 am
by thedoc
Philosophy Explorer wrote: βThu Feb 08, 2018 2:17 am
commonsense wrote: βThu Feb 08, 2018 12:30 am
Is this what philosophy means to you--unanswerable questions? Is it worthwhile to search for a truth that cannot be found? How can we know that a question is unanswerable or that a truth cannot be found? How would we even know we arrived upon a definitive answer if there were one? Or is it merely that some questions have no final answer? Once begun, can inquiry ever end?
I find such questions stimulating and what seems unanswerable may, in reality, be answerable.
PhilX
Except if you don't like the answer you might try to claim that it isn't a real answer and thus it is an unanswerable question.
Re: Why ask unanswerable questions?
Posted: Thu Feb 08, 2018 2:48 am
by Philosophy Explorer
thedoc wrote: βThu Feb 08, 2018 2:27 am
Philosophy Explorer wrote: βThu Feb 08, 2018 2:17 am
commonsense wrote: βThu Feb 08, 2018 12:30 am
Is this what philosophy means to you--unanswerable questions? Is it worthwhile to search for a truth that cannot be found? How can we know that a question is unanswerable or that a truth cannot be found? How would we even know we arrived upon a definitive answer if there were one? Or is it merely that some questions have no final answer? Once begun, can inquiry ever end?
I find such questions stimulating and what seems unanswerable may, in reality, be answerable.
PhilX
Except if you don't like the answer you might try to claim that it isn't a real answer and thus it is an unanswerable question.
Up to the individual I suppose.
PhilX

Re: Why ask unanswerable questions?
Posted: Thu Feb 08, 2018 3:56 am
by surreptitious57
Knowledge increases over time and so what may be unanswerable now may not be so in the future
Some questions are truly unanswerable but whether they are known to be or not is something else