The Infamous WHY???

Isn't it funny how no matter what you do, or what you say children always ask WHY?

I was out planting bulbs a few weeks ago now and my niece came up to me and asked me why I was planting them.

After I explained to her why I was planting them, she asked me why they needed to be put in the dirt and why did they have to be watered.

After 2 hours of answering why questions to her about planting bulbs, she began asking me why about a million other things and now my three year old has picked up on the infamous why questions.

It has always made me laugh when children ask that question, as once it begins it never stops and they always question your response to their question with...why?

But it isn't only children that continuously ask why, it is everyone. No matter what there is always that one fatal question that comes back to haunt us all and that is why?

But yeah what is the wierdest why question you have ever been asked and what was your response to it? Whether by a child or an adult.

~Torana

 

children are smart enough to ask 'why'... too many adults don't, letting themselves simply accept the most awful and stupid stuff, because they don't wonder and ask 'why'!

i'm a philosopher, so i ask 'why?' about everything!!!

 

Amen, mammamaia! I'm a scientist (which used to be pretty much the same thing as a philosopher), and "why" is the basis of every major breakthrough in science, from "Why do solid things fall downward, yet fire 'falls' upward" to "why can we not measure our speed relatine to the medium through which light propagates" and beyond.

The stranger the question, the more interesting the answer, not to mention the new questions every answer opens up.

 

The weirdest why question I've been asked was: Why won't you listen to me?

I haven't found the answer to this day...

 

Cogito... Doesn't that have something to do with Polarity?

And yeah.. getting asked why is so frustrating.. what about whats??? A hard 'what' queastion is what's it like in heaven. I assume it's full of xbox's! But why is the sky blue???? Erm.... God (or other power that be) ran out of red so he/it had to paint it blue... hmmm.. would that be a good answer??? Put your hand up if your confused about my post cause I certainly am!!!!

 

Which why was that?

The first question was answered by the early philosophers in terms of "natural place." Rocks and other solid objects were of the earth element, which "belongs" below the air element. But fire's natural place was above the air element, so it ascends.
The water element "belongs" below air but above earth.

Of course, now we see these phenomena in terms of gravity, and density and buoyancy.

The light question is harder to explain, but physicists were trying to discover the eath's motion relative to the "lumeniferous ether" ("light-carrying medium"), to try to determine the true motion of the universe. They conducted experiments to measure differences in the speed of light in different directions, but no matter what they tried, the speed of light was the same in all directions. This resulted in an equation known as Lorentz-Fitzgerald contraction, that explained the discrepancy in terms of a compression of space due to motion through the ether. Eventually, this lead to Einstein's theory of relativity, and the notion that either the lumeniferous ether does not exist or cannot be detected by any means we can conceive of.

Why is the sky blue breaks down to a physical question and a philosophical one. The physical one is why does the sky send more light to our eyes in the blue part of the spectrum than the other parts of the spectrum. But the philosohical question is why do we perceive that spectral distribution as blue? And does everyone perceive blue the same way? If I could swap brains with you, would blue look like what I used to think of as orange?

I happen to like this kind of question, in case it wasn't obvious. That is what attracted me to science at a very young age.

 

Cogito that is actually rather interesting and really has got me thinking hard...it would be so amazing to be able to look through the eyes of another person just to see if what you see is the same or not.

I am going to be thinking about what you have written in that post for days now...oh well at least it is something interesting to think about instead of where I left my bank card for a change lol

 

My partner is always going on about the "The only thing I know exists is myself" theory. xD

Cogito, Have you read Sophie's World?

 

No, I have not. I just googled the title, and it does look like it might be interesting.

However, I will not even attempt it in the original Norwegian!

 

But how does she know she exists?

 

Cogito ergo sum - Rene Descartes

 

I've actually only been asked this question, seriously, a few times by my nephew. Usually I give him the correct answer. (occasionally I'm wrong)
But mostly he'll just start asking why to try to annoy me. So I'll answer with 'because'. And he'll ask 'why again, only to get 'because'. This can go on for 5 minutes until he gets frustrated and gives up.

 

and me to philosophy, cogito!... i can remember asking grownups assembled in our living room when i was about 7, 'is this really a table, or do we just think it is?'... needless to say, i got no answer and was told to 'go play with your sister'...

a favorite one of my own 'greatest lines' is:

from my collection of 'profundities':

 

...except death!

 

Who's to say that the "real" people actually die?

 

The fact that they're no longer around walking, talking and the general like?

 

But are those people real, or just figments of the real peoples imagination?

 

Does the imagination have senses to know reality, such as pain et al?

 

I wouldn't know, I'm real. How do I know you're real though?

 

I typed this, you didn't. Bingo!

 

Maybe you're part of my imagination. I have to keep myself occupied somehow.

 

Now this is where you discover the horrible truth; I AM a figment of your imagination! This is all coming from your head. In fact, when you're asleep tonight your brain will download a seriously nasty virus which will disable your normal day-to-day functions. You will no longer be able to talk, to smell, to feel, to see, hear or touch. You will be in total chaos.

And when "they" finally pull the plug you ...[fzzt]...

 

Well that wouldn't be very interesting. So I don't think that will happen. And since for all I know all of this isn't real, I'm not worried about it.

 

Death is one of the greatest mysteries of all! Do we just end, or do we ascend to an exalted state, or descend into endless misery, or do we transmigrate into a new corporeal existence?

 

We don't, we fertiise the soil and that is that, we become a memory in the hearts and minds of our friends and family.

Well that is my thoughts on death anyways.

~Torana