When it comes to philosophical questions people describe them as deep or subsurface while

others may define them as dry or confusing. But what is a philosophical question, and how do

they help us to reason and inquire about the world and ourselves? To me, a philosophical

question is something that is not limited to objective true or false answers. These questions can

allow us to dig into a person's deeper sense of understanding and points of view. They never have

a solid answer because they are not objective, by allowing them to have zero true or false

answers you can develop a near-limitless number of answers to them as they are completely up

to the interpretation of the person answering. These questions also help us to confirm our beliefs

as we question them, or if we find ourselves having trouble questioning our beliefs this clarity

gives us room to change our beliefs completely or alter some aspects of what we believe in.

The term objective can be understood as asking or seeking something with a

particular goal or answer in mind. But in my use of the word, I intend to use the term objective in

the sense of something being right or wrong in reference to the given answer. When used in the

case of philosophical questions there is nothing that is particularly objective about them, except

for what is being asked in the question itself, with this lack of objective clarity there is space for

things to be subjective and dependent on the responder. The idea of subjectiveness over

objectiveness is key to creating a philosophical question, with the allowance of a concrete

answer you subtract from the ability to formulate a deeper answer that varies from person to

person, effectively eliminating the creative process that a philosophical question generates. With

this paper, I want to focus on Monroe C. and Elizabeth Lane Beardsley’s concept of

philosophical questions, they regard them as very general and highly fundamental questions

which ties into my belief that these questions being fundamentally highly subjective causes

people to question their views and core beliefs.

 The first reason that my belief Is correct is because philosophical questions rely

on making people question their beliefs. Someone such as Carl G. Hempel (Cahn 2019) who

makes use of scientific inquiry might believe that questions need a concrete answer and a

testable hypothesis to be viable. While true in reference to standard/scientific questions when it

comes to philosophical questions, we desire people to tell what Is true as it pertains to them

specifically, the perspectives of different people can align but will not always be the same. This

subjective attitude to viewing philosophical questions and their ability to make you question your

views and beliefs is what makes them particularly identifiable from scientific questions. Monroe

C. and Elizabeth Lane Beardsley (Cahn 2019) have stated that in reference to a philosophical

belief when we question these beliefs and ask why they are true, we are asking ourselves a

philosophical question. To ask ourselves the question of “why?” to our beliefs is the action of

questioning the meaning of concepts instead of specific ideas or questions.

This questioning of concepts is another part of what makes philosophical questions and

helps us understand our existence. When we question concepts and formulate a question that

doesn’t have any concrete answer, we force ourselves into complex thought processes and

subsurface thinking. With this deeper level of thought, we can begin to look into our psyche and

ask ourselves how our personal beliefs define certain things. Nermi Uygur is a writer who

elaborates on this idea within his text “What is a philosophical question?”. As he states in his text

the “What is” questions amount to asking “What is the meaning of” (Uygur, 1964). If we were to

follow this format of questioning for example, the question “What is happiness?”, as we ask

ourselves this question about a concept of life everyone has to look into themselves and ask what

is the meaning of happiness as it specifically pertains to themselves. Although some of our

answers may cross into similarity we will all have unique definitions that allow us to process life
in different manners, and these different answers can be given due to us not being able to

concretely define concepts or ideas.

So philosophical questions allow us to understand ourselves and the world around

us by not limiting our answers to what is true or false. The combination of consistent open-ended

questions and the extensive questioning of concepts causes us to fully think about and attempt to

explain the thoughts that we have about our personal beliefs and though processes. Although

perhaps these questions will not always cause us to understand the world around us more, it

could very well be that questions where we can answer yes or no can help some people

understand the world better. So a good question could be, is a broad open-ended question be

better than a specific singular answer question be better for this purpose?
 Works Cited
Cahn, Steven M. The World of Philosophy an Introductory Reader. 2nd ed., Oxford University
Press, 2019.

Uygur, Nermi. “What Is a Philosophical Question?” Mind, vol. 73, no. 289, 1964, pp. 64–
83. JSTOR, http://www.jstor.org/stable/2251639. Accessed 9 Oct. 2023.