How Do You Answer A "Why" Question?

[Chesterton]

I'm just posting this because it gave me a chuckle today. Politicians are pretty good at evading questions, others not so much. I'm not posting this to mock Feynman. From what little I know I respect his work. But in answer to a simple, "fundamental" question, he could have just said "I don't know". Instead you get a non-answer which takes 5 minutes. Just thought it was funny.

 

[SkyWriting]

I'm just posting this because it gave me a chuckle today. Politicians are pretty good at evading questions, others not so much. I'm not posting this to mock Feynman. From what little I know I respect his work. But in answer to a simple, "fundamental" question, he could have just said "I don't know". Instead you get a non-answer which takes 5 minutes. Just thought it was funny.

It's pretty well known that nobody knows, so the query had it comming.

 

[KingdomLeast]

How Do You Answer A "Why" Question?

I usually respond with a "because" answer … LOL

 

[durangodawood]

Because I said so!

 

[Chesterton]

It's pretty well known that nobody knows, so the query had it comming.

Feynman admitted that it was an "excellent question", so I don't see why you think the questioner had a long-winded evasion coming.

 

[AV1611VET]

I'm just posting this because it gave me a chuckle today. Politicians are pretty good at evading questions, others not so much. I'm not posting this to mock Feynman. From what little I know I respect his work. But in answer to a simple, "fundamental" question, he could have just said "I don't know". Instead you get a non-answer which takes 5 minutes. Just thought it was funny.

I he had not have died, I'd swear he posts here.

 

[TheBear]

The child asks the "why" questions.

The mature person asks the "how" questions.

 

[AV1611VET]

The child asks the "why" questions.

The mature person asks the "how" questions.

Not sure a child was available to ask him at the time.

 

[Tom 1]

The child asks the "why" questions.

The mature person asks the "how" questions.

Hmm caling centuries of philosophical enquiry, faith, literature, basic human development etc childish indicates a rather narrow way of thinking....science background determining your worldview perhaps? If so, a paradigm does not maturity make.

 

[JIMINZ]

The child asks the "why" questions.

The mature person asks the "how" questions.

Why?

 

[SkyWriting]

Feynman admitted that it was an "excellent question", so I don't see why you think the questioner had a long-winded evasion coming.

It's an excellent question and it has no quick and easy answer.
Asking an world class expert for his learned response should include
appreciation for all responses.

The listener is too busy to listen to Feynman?
By the way, he answers the question toward the end.
Then he re-explains that the questioner likely doesn't
have the background to understand the answer he
just gave, and probably missed it.

 

[SkyWriting]

The child asks the "why" questions.

The mature person asks the "how" questions.

I've never noticed old people doing that.

 

[durangodawood]

The child asks the "why" questions.

The mature person asks the "how" questions.

Sometimes I ask "whats for dinner?"

 

[Chesterton]

It's an excellent question and it has no quick and easy answer.
Asking an world class expert for his learned response should include
appreciation for all responses.

I don't understand. Could you rephrase that?

By the way, he answers the question toward the end.

What's the answer?

 

[dysert]

I've made it a habit to not even ask "why" questions. And when I'm teaching, if someone asks a "why" question I usually tell them I don't do "why" questions.

 

[AV1611VET]

I've made it a habit to not even ask "why" questions. And when I'm teaching, if someone asks a "why" question I usually tell them I don't do "why" questions.

I usually get a load of "why" questions:

1. Why did God put the Tree within reach of Adam & Eve?
2. Why did God send a flood, when He could have just zapped people away?
3. Why this? why that?

 

[Justatruthseeker]

I'm just posting this because it gave me a chuckle today. Politicians are pretty good at evading questions, others not so much. I'm not posting this to mock Feynman. From what little I know I respect his work. But in answer to a simple, "fundamental" question, he could have just said "I don't know". Instead you get a non-answer which takes 5 minutes. Just thought it was funny.

Because they prefer to obfuscate the issue with big sounding words, which in the end convinces most they actually know what they are talking about, when in reality they said nothing, except "I don't know".

But smart people have a complex about saying the words "I don't know".......

So the more big words you can throw in the mix, and the longer you can continue to do so, the more and more it seems that you know, even when you don't know the answer. It's all a word game and purposefully meant to distract from the fact "you don't know".....

The three still unanswered questions in science: What is Gravity, Electric and Magnetic fields.....

 

[Justatruthseeker]

It's an excellent question and it has no quick and easy answer.
Asking an world class expert for his learned response should include
appreciation for all responses.

The listener is too busy to listen to Feynman?
By the way, he answers the question toward the end.
Then he re-explains that the questioner likely doesn't
have the background to understand the answer he
just gave, and probably missed it.

What did a diversion about aunty matter????? We already know they are complex.

He can't explain it to someone that is familiar with physics. Look up magnetic fields in any science book. The only explanation is how particles act in that field, not what the field IS..

Sure it is connected to electricity, there is no magnetic field without an electric current....

 

[FrumiousBandersnatch]

The child asks the "why" questions.

Someone once said that philosophy is about asking questions like children and answering them like lawyers...

 

[FrumiousBandersnatch]

.. in answer to a simple, "fundamental" question, he could have just said "I don't know". Instead you get a non-answer which takes 5 minutes. Just thought it was funny.

It's an explanation, with examples, of why some such questions are impossible to answer; i.e. because an explanation needs to involve concepts that are familiar and more fundamental than the concepts that appear in the question, but there is always some level at which there are no concepts that are familiar and more fundamental than the concepts that appear in the question.