Big Questions and Supporting Questions
Know what makes a question big and worth investigating, with no single quick answer and more than one possible view, and break it into smaller supporting questions whose answers build up towards answering the big one
What a learner can do afterwards
- Tell apart a big question ('Why do people move to new places?') from a quick-lookup one ('What is the capital of France?')
- Break a big question into two or three smaller questions that would each help answer it
- Explain how the answer to a small question feeds the bigger one (e.g., 'Knowing what jobs there were tells us why families moved here')
1 · Read
Some questions have one quick answer you can look up, like 'What is the capital of France?' Other questions are much bigger. They do not have a single short answer, and different people might see them in different ways. Those big questions are worth digging into.
Maya wonders, 'Why do people move to new places?' That is a big question. No single fact answers it. So Maya breaks it into smaller questions: 'What jobs were people looking for?' and 'What made their old home hard to stay in?' Knowing what jobs there were tells her why families moved. Each small answer builds up to the big one.
Compare two questions: 'What is 5 + 3?' has one quick answer: 8. But 'Why do people move to new places?' does not. People could point to jobs, family, or safety. That range of answers is what makes it a big question.
To spot a big question, ask yourself: Is there just one quick answer? Could someone else see it differently? If the answer could vary, you have found a big question worth breaking down.
A big question has no quick answer and room for different views, so break it into smaller questions and build up to the answer.
More to read
1.2 How Do Philosophers Arrive at Truth?
Big questions have no answer you can find with one Google search. The question 'Is homework fair?' splits rooms because people's values differ, not because the facts differ. To answer a big question, gather reasons from every side, test them, and hold your verdict lightly. Small questions settle with one check, like what year or how many. Big ones need many small answers stacked together. When you can feel the difference, you stop demanding one single answer to a rich question.
1.3 Socrates as a Paradigmatic Historical Philosopher
Socrates taught by asking questions instead of lecturing. He asked Athenians what justice meant, then kept questioning each answer until its hidden assumptions showed. The embarrassment of finding out you do not know something is the lesson: knowing you do not know is where learning starts. Copy him: when someone states an opinion, ask for reasons, then ask for reasons for those reasons. Ask why five times and your thinking goes deeper.
1.5 Writing Process: Thinking Critically About a Text
Break big questions into supporting ones. 'Should school start later?' splits into smaller questions: how much do kids sleep, when do teens focus best, and what would buses cost. Each small question has an answer you can find. Gather those answers, weigh them where they clash, then judge the big question with evidence behind your answer. Splitting a question into small steps makes it possible to answer.
2 · Watch
En anglaisTake it off screen
Where it sits
Learn first
Nothing; this is a starting point.
Optional connections
This opens up
Where this leads
8 questions wait behind this lesson, each with its answer explained. Every answer feeds the sky: stars light as they are learned, and dim when it is time to come back.