[lbo-talk] Question and answer (was: ISO)

[Carrol Cox]

I never asked students a question without first expressing my view, and I
never accepted questions from students without them first giving their view
on the matter. Aside from the matter of bad faith, always a possibility,
questions are inherently ambiguous. A bit of page filler I remember from
about 70 years ago. Johnny asks his mother, where did I come from. She gives
a long first introduction to sex education. Johnny then says, that's
interesting, but Mary comes from St. Louis and Jerry comes from Detroit.
Where do I come from.

Carrol

-----Original Message-----
From: lbo-talk-bounces at lbo-talk.org [mailto:lbo-talk-bounces at lbo-talk.org]
On Behalf Of Michael Smith
Sent: Monday, November 07, 2011 4:18 PM
To: lbo-talk at lbo-talk.org
Subject: [lbo-talk] Question and answer (was: ISO)

On Mon, 7 Nov 2011 14:24:18 -0600
"Carrol Cox" <cbcox at ilstu.edu> wrote:

  
> I think it is a serious mistake, incidentally, to respond to any question
> (other than simple queries of fact) unless the person asking the question
> also gives his/her own answer to the question posed.

Posing questions, as an argumentative gambit, is a little 
squirrelly anyway, isn't it? No doubt there's a place for 
it --trying to tease out implications, trying to see whether 
you're following the interlocutor's logic. But in general 
it puts the questioner in the position of Mr District Attorney
and casts the questionee as Prisoner In The Dock. Answer
the question! Yes or no! 

Then there's the related question of Bad Questions. Nobody is 
required to answer any question, but it's downright stupid to 
answer Bad Questions -- questions packed as full of questionable 
presuppositions as a haggis is of offal. 

The constructive thing to do with a Bad Question is 
point out why it's bad. But even that may start to seem 
like too much work for too little reward, particularly with 
a questioner who seems to specialize in bad questions. 

 
-- 
--

Michael J. Smith
mjs at smithbowen.net

http://stopmebeforeivoteagain.org
http://www.cars-suck.org
http://fakesprogress.blogspot.com

"I think the American people want a solemn ass 
as a President, and I think I will go along with them."

-- Barack Obama 

(Okay, okay, it was really Calvin Coolidge.)
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