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quantyst
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WHY

December 15th, 2008, 7:09 pm

Those three letters, in that order, probably cause more confusion than any other interrogative. What does it really mean when we pose a question with the interrogative "WHY"? It seems I am asking an obvious question with an obvious answer. But, really? Why do you think so if you think so?
 
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vixen
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WHY

December 16th, 2008, 8:27 am

WTF?
 
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quantyst
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WHY

December 16th, 2008, 11:20 am

QuoteOriginally posted by: vixenWTF?Why the attitude?Why are you bothered by the question?
 
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Traden4Alpha
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WHY

December 16th, 2008, 11:45 am

Why WHY? I can think of four reasons:1. Finding a causal explanation2. Laying blame3. Seeking objective or subjective justification4. Prolonging an argument/discussionIn this thread, I think #4 reigns supreme.Note that the why of why assumes the system underlying the interrogative has a deterministic structure. Does the question "why did the radioactive atom decay at time t?" having meaning?
 
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quantyst
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WHY

December 16th, 2008, 12:36 pm

QuoteOriginally posted by: Traden4AlphaWhy WHY? I can think of four reasons:1. Finding a causal explanation2. Laying blame3. Seeking objective or subjective justification4. Prolonging an argument/discussionIn this thread, I think #4 reigns supreme.Note that the why of why assumes the system underlying the interrogative has a deterministic structure. Does the question "why did the radioactive atom decay at time t?" having meaning?By your response, you have in fact shown that #4 does not reign supreme. I wouldn't have started the thread if I had not experienced confusion with this interrogative. My intention for asking the "WHY" question is not to prolong anything for the sake of prolonging, per se. But I felt there probably might be some insightful suggestions from people about it. After all, we probe and ponder about the world by asking questions, and there is nothing wrong by asking what the questions really accomplish. I can think of another reason for "why": the intentional reason. I did X because my intention was to accomplish Y. Why did I purchase the shoes? I did so because I intend to wear them. A frequent use of "WHY" has nothing to do with being an interrogative. It functions as a rhetorical "why". This happens quite often when we complain by exclaiming "Why did you do that?". It isn't so much that we seek to know why by such an exclamation, but that we want to let them know that they shouldn't have done that.Your incisive example "why did the radioactive atom decay at time t?" makes us realize that there are possibly limits to where and how the interrogative "why" may be used. Along these lines, we've all heard the philosophical (but bothersome) question "Why is there something as opposed to nothing?". Does it make sense to ask that question with the "Why" in it?You first reason is that of causal explanation. Which, by the way, reminds me to ask: How do we define the idea of "Cause & Effect"? (I am sure there are tomes written on this. So forgive me for asking the question here.)
Last edited by quantyst on December 15th, 2008, 11:00 pm, edited 1 time in total.
 
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Traden4Alpha
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WHY

December 16th, 2008, 1:05 pm

Yes, "cause and effect" is a tricky one. My reason #1 should probably be split into past and future focused interrogatives. That is: "why A" may have answers of: "previous B caused A," or "we want future C and A causes C." Further thought also suggests that reasons #2, #3 are variants of #1 in the sense of person-as-cause, justification-by-listing-effects.I intended no negative connotations with #4. "Prolonging" can be both either for argumentative purposes or exploratory purposes. Is the rhetorical why a semi-internal form of #4? Perhaps.The "radioactive atom" example is stranger than first appears given the recent controversial evidence that solar neutrino flux may influence the rate of decay. ("Why did the neutrino cross the road? To get to the silicon 32 atom on the other side.") My personal belief is that the experimental results that show this effect are probably best explained by temperature-induced measurement errors, but we shall see!
 
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vixen
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WHY

December 16th, 2008, 4:13 pm

QuoteOriginally posted by: quantystQuoteOriginally posted by: vixenWTF?Why the attitude?Why are you bothered by the question?Chill dude. Twas only a joke. I was trying to succinctly point out the other three letter interrogative that is now the accepted form for expressing confusion.
Last edited by vixen on December 15th, 2008, 11:00 pm, edited 1 time in total.
 
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quantyst
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WHY

December 16th, 2008, 4:20 pm

QuoteOriginally posted by: vixenQuoteOriginally posted by: quantystQuoteOriginally posted by: vixenWTF?Why the attitude?Why are you bothered by the question?Chill dude. Twas only a joke. I was trying to succinctly point out the other three letter interrogative that is now the accepted form for expressing confusion.So, mere misunderstanding? In that case, I do chill, dude. And thanks for explaining when "WTF?" may be used.
 
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vixen
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WHY

December 16th, 2008, 4:49 pm

Yup. Misunderstanding. But I do agree with you that 'why' is the most confused and abuse of them all., what with the teleological, mechanistic, and intentional types of answers possible to such a question. If only we had separate words to represent each type of question.
 
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phuebu
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WHY

December 17th, 2008, 8:31 pm

When people say "Why?" there is always an implicit statement which should follow. If you were showing someone how to do something and you said "push this button" and they said "why" it is fairly obvious they mean "why do I push that button?". Confusion only arises when it's not obvious from context what question you are asking but people still drop the actual question part of their sentance.