Crazy Philosophy Exam Question

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.

What kind of question was that O_o

I am so glad that I did not choose Philosophy...then agan I wish I did not select statistics, business and psychology to study either. =(

That's like... beyond philosophy.
That's... totally awesome.

Man... that's how I think, but I wouldn't actualy have thought of that for something in a university.

Wow... Just wow...

There should've been more answers that could be accepted, though.

But... this is just awesome.

'Tis a pretty deep and quite controversial answer. I like it.

Same answer I would've given.

Then you pass! *gives A+*

I think I would have just said "What."

But that's why I'm not a philosophy student!

I probably would've answered "Because" if I came up against that question.

Isn't that just one of the really cliched philosophy exam questions? I remember one of my friends telling me he took a test like that.

When I saw the question in the mouseover text, the first answer I thought of was "why not?"

I guess that means I'm awesome or something.

This is why Philosophy isn't a real subject.

But even beyond that, I still don't understand why philosophy is actually a class you can take. It's not like you can get a master's and suddenly you know everything about it like everything else you can get a masters on.

'Tis an Urban Legend I'm afraid; my (50 year old) mom heard this story in her college days. Another variation is the test wherein the prof places a chair in the middle of the room and asks his students to prove the chair's existence, with the only "A" grade being given to the response "What chair?".

I've taken 3 university level philosophy final exams, and they all followed the same general format: "Asses <Author A's> argument concerning <Position B>. Reference the counter-arguments of <Authors C and D>" . Maybe not as elegant, but certainly more fair

I rather like that Urban Legend relating to physics I believe, which asked if Hell was Endothermic or Exothermic.

Person A: "Why?"
Person B: "Why not?"

=Fail.

The only line of correct answers would involve "Why what?" and the like.
"Why?" is an unknown question fragment, so the only response that makes sense is asking for clarification.

Go tell THAT to Mr. Philosophy teacher.

Originally Posted by Nje789

Person A: "Why?"
Person B: "Why not?"

=Fail.

The only line of correct answers would involve "Why what?" and the like.
"Why?" is an unknown question fragment, so the only response that makes sense is asking for clarification.

Go tell THAT to Mr. Philosophy teacher.

The whole point of philosophy is trying to make sense of that which does not. That's why they'd probably get away with it in Philosophy. You know, not being a real subject and all.

This is a really popular urban legend, no idea if it honestly has any truth behind it or not, though.

Originally Posted by The Arbitrator

This is why Philosophy isn't a real subject.

Heh, modern post-modernist philosophy is nothing but silly rubbish, I agree, but old-style pre-1950s philosophy was a very serious study of all sorts of things and was actually worthwhile.

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

Philosophy is boring, verbose, pedantic, and has only served to exacerbate my depression.

"The whole point of philosophy is trying to make sense of that which does not. That's why they'd probably get away with it in Philosophy. You know, not being a real subject and all."

...annnd, through clarification, is how you'd make sense of that question fragment.