Wednesday, April 29, 2009

So...what's a question?

"To understand a question means to ask it. To understand an opinion is to understand it as the answer to a question." (pg 338). I think this passage sums up well what Gadamer is getting at. In regards to questions, we have an understanding of the question itself in order to even ask it. If we did not understand the question, I guess we could not express it. I think I've done this before. there have been times when I was stumped on a problem and I could not even ask a question with being too broad. I think too, that the sentiment also applies to very broad questions and how they often lead to other questions. In a sense we didn't fully understand the question and thus asked a lame version of the question in hopes of understanding the question. On the other hand there are opinions, which are answers to questions. This makes sense to me too I think, but I do wonder about answering someone else's question with another question. Is that still an opinion? The example I had in mind was Socrates answering his questioners with another question in the Platonic dialogues. Thoughts anyone?

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