Re: Poll: Why?

The subject line is Poll: Why? A poll is framed in terms of answers to
a specific question, the point being to see how many respondents pick
each of the answers. Examples:

Who did you vote for in the last Presidential election?
Bush
Carey
Nader
Other

Is the sky falling?
Yes
No
Undecided

Hence, the poll question "Why?" in the absence of a set of responses
from which to choose, does not constitute an actual poll.

On the other hand, if the author is attempting merely to elicit
responses to the question of "Why?" and had only a limited selection of
subject headers from which to choose, e.g., AD, ANN, etc., then "Poll"
may be the best choice from a limited number of options.

Now, to answer the question. On a strictly linguistic basis, when taken
out of a context, the question is too vague to be answered. In normal
conversation, the question "Why?" is a response to some statement. For
example, you may tell your five year old not to touch the top of the
stove, to which he may respond, "Why?"

Less strictly speaking, however, this question has usually been
understood to be asked in the largest possible context. Namely, "Why is
there anything?" Or, "Why are we here?" Although this may count as a
context, it is troublesome.

A question is a sentence seeking a reply, or answer. Sentences that
appear in the form of a question, but cannot possibly be answered, are
pseudo-questions; they are ill-formed. For example, "What sound does
the color green make?" This sentence is in the form of a question, but
the reply it seeks is impossible because colors do not emit sounds.
Colors are a function of light waves and sounds are a function of sound
waves. This is also known as a "category mistake."

The questions "Why is there anything?" and "Why are we here?" are
pseudo-questions, however they require a bit more analysis. Briefly,
the problem is that we have no way of determining the conditions that
need to be met for a possible answer. For example, consider the
question "What color are elephants?" The conditions for answering this
question might be something like, look at an elephant under suitable
lighting conditions and compare the color of the elephant with a known
chart of colors. The questions under discussion do not admit of such
conditions--(at least none that I have found satisfactory).


I've a PhD in philosophy with a specialty in linguistic analysis. I
just couldn't help myself replying to this one...


Bradley

.

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