When you google “philosophy” and click on images, most of them are abstract. They make you feel like you should get something out of them, but often can’t figure out what it is. This may seem random, but often I look up pictures to get inspiration for writing assignments; when writer’s block hits, blogs are nothing more than that. One of the more interesting images I found is the one above – and it’s far from the only one – with the simple quote: “question everything.”

This is the core principle of philosophy; and though my blog is generally not about the technical concepts or strategies of philosophy, I don’t know what else to categorize it as. The idea of questioning everything seems a little strange. It can become quite aggravating when literally applied to ones’ behavior as well…just think of the 5 year old who won’t stop asking “why?” like the stick figure in this picture. It is exhausting to question everything, and seems to generally not be required of us as we go through our every day lives.

It is however interesting. To question is to consider; to consider lends toward understanding. Therefore by questioning everything, you are looking to gain a better understanding of everything. A lot of people can probably agree that understanding things is generally good; it is the goal of all education programs, school included. It is also a goal of television shows, documentaries, books, magazines, radio shows, songs, podcasts, and anything else that conveys information about a subject. The idea of telling a story is answering a question that may or may not have been explicitly asked, but it is an answer nonetheless.

Questioning can be simple and superficial, or it can be deep and probing. It all depends on the question and the person posing it. To ask someone what they ate for dinner or what their next class is can be considered the first type of question. The second lends itself to what people probably consider the roots of philosophy, positing questions such as “why are we here?” or “what is the meaning of life?” or “how do all these people live entirely separate lives?” The very concept of being able to question poses many questions about the human capacity to think and wonder and comprehend the world around us.

The trap that most people fall into when asking a question, though, is assuming that there is an answer. This is not always the case. There may not be enough information as of yet to answer certain questions, like “what cures cancer?” or “what will Earth be like in a billion years?” Some questions we will never have the answers to, even though they once had answers: “what colors were dinosaurs?” and “what were the creatures like that didn’t leave fossils?” We will never have proof for many other questions, but some we can form guesses as to what we believe is the correct answer given other things we do know.

The point of always asking questions is not necessarily to find answers. Often when you ask a question and after getting an answer find yourself with even more questions, that is when you truly begin to understand something; even if it is just that there is no answer to most of the questions. Questions have a place in every aspect of human existence, from “how long do I leave this in the oven?” to “why don’t you take the square root of the denominator?” to “is it a boy or a girl?” They can be ridiculous or meaningful, tricky or simple; either way, they are the medium that allows information to be transferred succinctly from one person to another. Questions can create breakthroughs or destroy relationships in the blink of an eye with the same blunt punctuation. Asking questions can sometimes give you answers, but it will always give you just a little more than that.