---
date: '2024-02-07'
description: questions as a way to learn, Socratic examination of beliefs, and inner-outer circle discussions of texts.
id: questions
modified: 2026-10-16 09:01:01 GMT-04:00
tags:
  - seed
title: questions
created: '2024-02-07'
published: '2024-02-07'
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---
What are questions really?

People say “there is no such thing as a stupid question”. I think asking questions expresses an innate desire to learn. That’s a starting intuition about inquiry. An opinion can give us something to investigate; its being ours gives us no guarantee that it is true.

Source: [Ask better questions on Kernel](https://www.kernel.community/en/learn/module-2/better-questions/)

### Socratic method

In Plato’s dialogues, [[thoughts/Socrates|Socrates]] asks people to explain claims they take themselves to understand, then tests those explanations against their other commitments.

In [_Euthyphro_, 7a–8a](https://classics.mit.edu/Plato/euthyfro.html), piety is proposed as what the gods love. Euthyphro also accepts that gods disagree about right and wrong. These commitments allow the same action to be both pious and impious. Something in the account needs revision. Finding this contradiction exposes a problem; it leaves the correct account to be established.

A Socratic Circle is a classroom practice for discussing texts. It draws on questioning and [[thoughts/dialectics|dialectic]]. This procedure needs no premise that all knowledge comes from experience (_a posteriori_), or that every thought begins as a question.

In an [inner-outer circle discussion](https://www.readwritethink.org/professional-development/strategy-guides/conducting-inner-outer-circle), the inner group discusses the text while the outer group listens and records observations. The groups exchange feedback and can switch roles, giving each student practice in speaking and listening.