The majority ask why only when their expectations and reality are different. A partner asks why when the other deceives the other. A mother asks her god why her son has been defiant. The function of why at those points indicates a powerful tool yet, forgotten. She remembered only through painful notifications from the reality that its dynamics were not understood well. Babies are born curious and always question everything from Why to How.
Questioning isn’t about humans. Researches about other animals indicate that they possess some degree of inquiry and curiosity. However, the human examination has been far more competent than other known creatures. The virtue of philosophy is questioning.
As its ancient name means the love of knowledge and thinking, philosophy runs with questioning. It isn’t easy to refer to philosophy without referring to questioning itself. So, philosophy is about questioning the information dancing. Although questioning methods vary, they always produce something more valuable than the prior process. Its consistency is debited to logic, yet, as some philosophers argued, there can be deductions that do not rely on the Sense.
The only question of Why X or Why Z has always been more challenging to explain than X or How Z. As their syntax highlights, Why requires deductions that always point to the fundamental principle if such a principle exists. The question of Why promotes inductions in contrast with How, which enables hypotheses.
If we agree that someone always acts for the rational interest of oneself, he would always ask Why in order to catch some clues about the existence itself to exploit them for their purpose. Logic provides a consistent framework without questioning Why every time. This is why we call them “Logic Systems”. Imagine asking Why and Why every time you come up with a conclusion.
Why of Why is a more profound question as it reflects its dynamics (Subject Why becomes the Object Why). It is well advised that you ask Why, Why to yourself and try to answer that. Can there be an objective answer to that question, or is it always limited to thinking entities’ limits of thinking?
Scientists could be lazy from those perspectives as they do not even care to answer why. They see why as an unnecessary and time-consuming toy; some even called this quest “Religion”. Nihilists completely deny why to their broad extents.
Philosophy isn’t something unique to some distant people. It is a tool to integrate one’s experience and inferences for the maximum benefit of the entity itself. Today, even after the explosion of data worldwide, people tended to ask Why, less. This is very dangerous as the volume of information and entropy of the content increase, accelerating.
Why does the majority not use such a powerful tool?
Perseverance, also a recently named space exploration protocol, keeps going despite uneasiness. It is not giving up until the desired or better results are achieved. But humans seem to have been giving up asking. Why, just after so much data and new areas are discovered?
Curiosity is a fundamental emotion that triggers questioning. Curiosity is reflective as it always tries to find the truth. A curious entity isn’t satisfied with a sufficiently explained answer as she would know that any solution is the next question. An interested person kills dogmas; in return, they are hated in the realm of stagnant doctrines and Doxa. Why can so many not stand being hated by those wicked Doxas and hastily accepted delusions?
One who is both perseverent and curious would uncover mysteries of existence. If a person lacks either or both, they will not be able to fulfil their destiny. The true virtue of humans is to question reality and reflect on that. Asking has no clear structure that can be used as an algorithm for people to delegate to computers. More than that, your questions become the answers for everybody. And in return, their solutions become your questions. Such a chain of evolution and improvement!
In life, one can be sure of asking why. The more you ask why yourself, the less you will have to ask why—delegating Why is like delegating all your consciousness to somebody else. Only people who are hurt and painful delegate their Why because only then would they be able to decrease their pain of awareness for some time. But Why not defeat all the Evil by asking Why rather than staying paralysed without question, Why?
Initially published for Polyhedron on 12/8/2022
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