Everything2
Near Matches
Ignore Exact
Full Text
Everything2

What question is its own answer?

created by Footprints

(idea) by yitz (2.9 mon) (print)   ?   (I like it!) Tue Apr 29 2003 at 17:03:12

Rebbe Nachman of Breslov explains in his Discussions (Sichot) that Philosophy is the art of taking an answer and a question together and phrasing them as a question.

This, he suggests, is why philosophy leads to endless paths of questioning. Since the answer is already part of the question, offering the proper answer seems redundant. Not to mention, the correct answer is, by the definition of the question, incomplete or wrong.

Perhaps an example of this might be:
Does God exist?
According to the teachings of the Ba'al haTanya as well as many other Hassidic and Kabbalistic masters, the concept of existence is dependent on God, and God himself is above existence. Let me paraphrase an oft-used hebrew quote from the Tanya (k'lo mamash hashivei klal) into 20th century terminology: In God's reference frame nothing exists.
Therefore any question of whether God exists is meaningless.

Many of these type of questions can be solved by thinking of ideas as containers. Since on God's level, even existence doesn't exist, and below God's level, existence exists, it makes sense to think of God containing existence. Whereas the Rambam (Maimonides) explains that God is beyond all boundary; and when something exists it is not a member of the set of all nonexistant things. So, if something is said to exist, it is bounded in a specific way, in that something can't exist and not exist simultaneously. Therefore God, who is beyond any sort of boundary, is not contained by existence.
Since the question is premised on the misleading idea that existence could perhaps contain God, there is no way to answer whether or not God exists.

Illustration aside, most questions that seem to have no clear cut answers are usually premised on paradoxical assumptions. This is imho Rebbe Nachman's point. Most questions contain the answer within the question.


The particular subject matter of the illustration might cause a lot of conflict but in his sicha R'Nachman uses a similar illustration iirc, and so I don't feel it's unreasonable to pick such a distracting argument.

printable version
chaos

if you have to ask you wouldn't understand Until today, it really pissed me off that I'd become this totally centered Zen Master and nobody had noticed No I will not fix your computer quine
If you know a religion to be false, should you tell its followers? The Dream Of A Ridiculous Man II QED Zen Story: Nothing Exists
"No" is a complete sentence Paul Daniels question the question before you contemplate the answer Happy Noodle Boy
God can create a stone so heavy even he can't lift it How can God allow evil to exist? Your own personal Kryptonite Are you okay?
god and tetris If God did not exist, it would be necessary to invent him indeed Question
Cut and paste writeups will die Imperialist culture v. Native traditions favicon.ico How to talk to a quiet person
Y'know, if you log in, you can write something here, or contact authors directly on the site. Create a New User if you don't already have an account.
  Epicenter
Login
Password

password reminder
register

Everything2 Help

Cool Staff Picks
Drink up!
Salvation for modern Dads
circuit bending
Ayn Rand
Toby lied
Pat Metheny on Kenny G
The Unpardonable Sin
Teach your million tiny babies to parasail
High school doth make cowards of us all
June 5, 2006
How to hide
Your beliefs are your concern, just please don't let them creep into our secular argument
Paper airplane
Live and Let Die
New Writeups
Nadine_2
The Sound Of Madness(review)
Twin Eclipse
Conversations with God: An Uncommon Dialogue(idea)
SwimmingMonkey
Conversations with Fo Fo- the Loneliest dog in Purgatory(fiction)
locke baron
lynx(thing)
Simulacron3
Reality, Dimensions and the Natural Ontology(essay)
SubSane
Making Love to a 9-Foot Woman(person)
Ouzo
Thoughts(idea)
antigravpussy
I fall silent, listening. The breadcrumbs are talking about us(person)
calgon
Buffalo Bill by the pool(poetry)
gate
Anarchy is Order(idea)
ushdfgakjasgh
Scribeling(thing)
XWiz
Trism(review)
artman2003
Briefcase Full of Souls - Part I(fiction)
Dreamvirus
Alan Ladd(person)
waverider37
Harold Holt(person)
This affordable entertainment brought to you by The Everything Development Company