Is it pointless to ask questions, if the answer is all around us?

Socrates proved you could "lead" a man to the truth, to answers he didn't know were in him. Actually, they were not in him at all; Socrates had learned to lead a man, with questions, to the process of making inductive and deductive conclusions based on the context of the question he was asked.

Socrates claimed that since a man had the truth within him all the time, it must be a priori. Nothing could have been further from the truth.

The real truth is this: One must ask questions to get at the truth, because it doesn't jump out at you like a cat from the bushes, or like an intuition. If we had to wait for intuitions we would know almost nothing.

Asking is the cause of an effect, and that effect is inductive or deductive reasoning, which alone can provide answers. Those answers are not "all around us." Those would resemble Plato's Forms. Rather, they are conceptual discoveries, which could not be induced or deduced were no questions to be asked.

Is it pointless to ask questions, if the answer is all around us?

Curiosity is our greatest asset, but we should try observing and answering the question a bit more before asking.

Do questions lead to truth?

They lead to knowledge. Is knowledge the truth, the whole truth and nothing but the truth? No.

Why do we ask them?

Because on a practical level I need knowledge to walk from one side of the room to the other.

On a higher level because knowledge is power and power makes us feel either safe or at an advantage.

Are they necessary or should we stop questioning entirely?

We should not stop asking. Is it necessary? No

Ah Unus, sometimes we don't realise that the answer has been staring us in the face or been straight under our noses until it's too late, as in we have already been trying to figure out the answers the hard way. Also if we stopped questioning, we wouldn't grow and mature in wisdom would we? So no we should never retire from questioning because a wise mind is an enlightened mind.

I ask questions because I am presented with ideas, theories, points of view, which otherwise I have a tendency to accept on faith, and to follow dutifully. Once I have an understanding, an awareness, there is false faith, false belief, conditioned thoughts, then I have an intelligent respect and don't need to ask questions. Asking questions implies the ask-er and the ask-ee. Intelligence is a shared inquiry without conclusions, which is different to the mechanical process of question and answer.

we are designed to ask questions. we wouldn't be here if life didn't ask questions. based on the past trend, the only way to advance in life is to question, there's so much we don't know, you may not realise it but even if you tried not to ask questions your subconscious mind would continue to work out answers. If you were to live your life blind of the unknown do you realise how boring and uneventful and deprived existence would be? we may as well not exist at all... think of the first living organism to climb out of the water, despite the fact it was probably some tiny 'insignificant' creature, it would have experienced a moment of curiosity and realisation accompanied by a question 'what i i were to live on dry land?'... it is my belief that life is designed to inhabit the universe and work out how it works, without life forms to inhabit such a thing what would be the point in the universe existing with nobody there to see it and question?

a good example of the benefits of asking questions is The Truman Show... looking for patters and instances that nobody else can be bothered to see is key to achieving in life...

truth is not possible, facts are lies, all those words describe is the most likely outcome of the situation or a boiled down explanation, neither give the full picture.

and ask yourself, what if you never asked a question, in your entire life, would you even be asking this question now? no, would you be anywhere? no, questions are not only for the truth, but for opinions which we as humans usually hold in higher regard than any truth or fact.

futhermore, sure, the answers maybe around us, but it does not mean we can understand them, nor access them, which is why we hire people to do these things for us.

finally, we come to your case, sometimes we (/you) ask questions out of laziness (it takes no enlightenment to think logically), or sometimes just to look smart (you look more like an ***).

all in all, questions are required, this is the only logical answer.

I think it's good to question and then find the answers in yourself. It's how you answer your own questions that can reveal a lot about yourself. Never stop asking questions...always remain curious. Life will stay more interesting that way.

A question exists the moment you ask it and as Socrates says "The unquestioned life is not worth living". Questioning means that you are thinking and thinking qives you a sense of awareness and consciousness and hence a sense of existence even if there were no answers.

We could never learn anything without asking questions

The acquisition of knowledge is only possible through asking questions and finding answers.

So the answer is, no, it is in fact necessary to ask questions.

x

even if the answer is all around you, if you cant see it then you need to ask to get the answer. we ask questions to increase our knowledge, which increases the knowledge of humanity. if we didnt ask questions then we would have tvs and we would know that, for example, the earth is the perfect spot in the whole solar system to see an eclipse or that lizards can re-grow bones or that if you put mentos in coke, it will explode. in your face.