Lani Watson on What Makes Something a Question

Watson argues that a question is not identified by having a question mark or by intonation, since spoken questions lack question marks and intonational signalling for questions varies across languages and cultures. Instead she defines a question as an information-seeking act, a functional definition rather than a formal one.

Because her definition rests on function rather than linguistic form, Watson holds that nonverbal acts such as looking both ways before crossing a road, looking a word up in a dictionary, or raising an eyebrow can count as questions, since they are information-seeking acts even without words.

Watson maintains that a rhetorical question, defined as one not asked with the goal of eliciting information, is not really a question, though what counts as rhetorical is often unclear. She distinguishes this from sincerity, arguing that a question asked insincerely still counts as a question as long as it retains an information-seeking function, comparing this to a hammer used for a non-hammering purpose still being a hammer.

Watson argues that questions constitute a form of power that people underappreciate in modern life, one that can be harnessed for positive change but can also be misused, for instance in overly hostile or aggressive questioning that goes beyond genuine truth-seeking.

Watson explains that philosophers are comfortable with long question and answer sessions and with questions that lack clear resolutions because the discipline has a thousands-year history of asking questions such as how to live or how we can know something without arriving at final answers.

Watson observes that many philosophical texts contain almost no question marks, indicating a shift toward producing long systematic answers. She warns that this answer-oriented model, also visible in society's rush toward technological solutions like ChatGPT, risks losing sight of whether the underlying question being answered is worth answering.

Watson notes that children's questioning declines sharply once they enter school and nearly disappears by secondary education, even though the neurochemical drive to explore and question, rewarded by dopamine, remains active in adult brains. She argues people should embrace this impulse rather than let an answer-oriented culture suppress it.

Nigel Warburton raises the concern that Socratic-style questioning, testing ideas to destruction, can seem rude or aggressive. Watson agrees this can go too far, suggesting that in some dialogues Socrates tips over from truth-seeking into riling his interlocutors, doing something else with his questions beyond genuine inquiry.