Crazy Philosophy Exam Question

Originally Posted by I <3 Hyrule

So, my brother told me about his friend in university that takes Philosophy class. He had an exam and one of the questions was simply "Why?". There was no question before it. In fact, it was the first question! The correct answer was "Why not?". Almost all the students failed. One of the students that passed, was my brother's friend.

There is no correct answer to that question, "why?" can be answered with anything, and the professor marking all of the answers that were not "why not?" is simply being arrogant and narrow minded.

Originally Posted by Coss

There is no correct answer to that question, "why?" can be answered with anything, and the professor marking all of the answers that were not "why not?" is simply being arrogant and narrow minded.

True, the professor probably just wanted to be witty and make everyone go OH LAWD WHY DIDN'T I THINK OF THAT.

But that urban legend is so old, anyway, and I'm surprised only one person knew about it.

*sigh* But no, the postmodernists had to come along and pointedly ignore every part of philosophy that worked or gave it any purpose.

I think there's more "serious" philosophy being done today than some people care to credit. Serious questions concerning Quantum Mechanics, Artificial Intelligence, and Neuroscience - all fields less than a century old - are of major concern to modern philosophy departments. "Traditional' philosophy hasn't exactly died out either: the proof against the Identity of Indiscernables, an axiom which had been held strictly for 3 centuries and less strictly for millenia before that, is less than 20 years old.

Originally Posted by dany the dot

True, the professor probably just wanted to be witty and make everyone go OH LAWD WHY DIDN'T I THINK OF THAT.

But that urban legend is so old, anyway, and I'm surprised only one person knew about it.

I suspected it to be urban legend, but decided to humour the TC anyway.