What if there were no hypothetical questions?

Discussion in 'General Philosophy' started by MoJo_66, Jun 20, 2003.

  1. MoJo_66 Registered Member

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    What if....
     
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  3. siledre Registered Senior Member

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    then this thread would never have been started.

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  5. Circe Registered Senior Member

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    What brevity of speech!

    If you're aspiring to make the shortest post on the forum, I want to remind you that the inhabitants of Laconia still, supposedly, did better.

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  7. NeoBeetnik38 Registered Senior Member

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    lol. Then I would be really frigging bored.
     
  8. glaucon tending tangentially Registered Senior Member

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    ...then... there'd be no more questions.
     
  9. ok

    catch 22
     
  10. MechTech Registered Senior Member

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    If there were no hypothetical questions, then every being and form of life would innately possess all knowledge of everything!

    Hence, there being all knowledge, there would be a lack of questions

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  11. Quigly ......................... ..... Registered Senior Member

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    Please explain. There would still be questions and still be lack of knowledge wouldn't there be? Just no more hypothetical questions. There would be a whole heck of alot less philosophers.
     
  12. river-wind Valued Senior Member

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    then I would be very tired of living. eat, sleep screw, crap.....tv? actually, are fictional TV shows "hypothetical situations"? would they no longer exsist? would TV be 300 different Discovery and TLC shows?

    is any form of creativity based on a What If I Did X? then creativity would disapear, if the questions did. Wow this world would suddenly be really boring.
     
  13. MechTech Registered Senior Member

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    Hmmm......actually you're right. That isn't the only possibility.

    Another equally valid possibility is that there would be no more self-aware beings (as those are the only type which can question anyway). In other words, the only types of beings living would be things such as plants and mushrooms. (I am, of course, assuming that plants and mushrooms are not self-aware. Being that I am neither plant, nor mushroom, I cannot verify this 100%

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    )

    Another assumption I am making is that it is not possible for questions to exist without hypothetical questions to exist. Hence, in both scenarios, there would be no questions. (In the one, because all answers were innately known, and in the other, because no being has the intelligence to even think about or comprehend any sorts of questions whatsoever)
     
  14. notme2000 The Art Of Fact Registered Senior Member

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    If there were no hypothetical questions, hypothetically I'd stop existing....
     
  15. Ectropic Registered Senior Member

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    What if there were only hypothetical questions? How would I find out what is for dinner?
     
  16. joemamaa Registered Senior Member

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    Then you eat hypothetical food.
     
  17. Mucker Great View! Registered Senior Member

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    Exactly

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  18. Mucker Great View! Registered Senior Member

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    Exactly

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    Hypothetical questions are not neccessarily useless (and I get the feeling people consider them to be so). Hypothetical questions allow us to think, as you have written, 'what if...' and from there we can consider other variables, and we can then know what the answer is. Without any 'what if's' then we wouldn't be able to know the counter argument (or even the couterside) of anything, and hence with no 'what if's' there would be no free will and probably no existence.

    Sorry if that's a bit deep.
     
  19. Qiothus II Majikal Man Registered Senior Member

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    Mojo

    You're fired

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  20. mirage Registered Member

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    this thread really cracked me up.

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  21. DarkEyedBeauty Pirate. Registered Senior Member

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    If there were no hypothetical questions, spoken or unspoken, we would not be able to project into the future. So most likely, our advances as a civilization would stop and all new threats to our lives would not be able to be handled, unless something was accidentally stumbled on, but we would not be able to improve it. Science, philosophy, medicine are all advanced by hypotheticals. We would become stagnant.
     

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