Is formulating an answer as important as understanding fully the meaning of the question?

Question

How much of your answers are truly yours. Or are they second hand, something you have read, heard, or actually experienced for yourself.

Answer 1

We have to understand the different reasons why question is being asked. Maybe the questioner really doesn't know the answer, maybe he has the answer but he wants to compare it with other answers, maybe it is just for fun, or maybe he knows the real answer and he wants to help others.
Questions about knowledge especially the academic and technical can be answered squarely by the learned on these fields. These are factual and real with more or less definite answers.
Questions about spirituality, religion, faith, belief, interpretation, opinion, superstitions and other related field of knowledge has no definite answer, it is always subjective.
I think understanding the real scope of the question is very important and it is also important to be honest if you know the right answer to the question or not. If your answer is not really yours then make necessary quotation.

Answer 2

The questions are interesting, but I am hesitant to answer deeply in such an ephemeral venue, but I'll make a contribution.

A question I'll ask back is, do you formulate your answer before you understand the question? Like the well known adage about listening and talking. "Do you listen, or wait to talk?"

I am determined to avoid being metaphysical here, it makes my hair hurt. This looks to be two or more questions about epistemology, so I'll stay in that arena.

From the perspective of the questioner, it is essential to have some understanding of the answer, or possible answers to be able to ask a coherent question. A quick look at most of the questions posted on this site would make my case fully enough.

Both understanding the question and formulating an answer are important. They are sequential. One could stop at understanding the question and take some good (some learning) from that exercise alone. The act of formulating an answer to any question that doesn't allow for automaticity assumes some higher order functioning. Be it Calculus or History, forming a thoughtful answer is always beneficial to the answerer, and hopefully to the questioner.

As far as originality is concerned, assimilation, accommodation and elaboration are tools we use every day to learn, that are to store knowledge. Our ability to take information from many sources and create new (to us) knowledge is called synthesis. This ability is one of the higher order goals and a sign of real learning. It doesn't matter over much if the knowledge is "new to the world," which is quite rare, only that it was arrived at in our minds by synthesis. Synthesis can also be called problem solving I guess.

Personally, I hate citations and would argue that they are the biggest obstacles to original thought in academia today. But, some scholars are so inept that their peers want to make sure the information being offered isn't the product of the mind of Elmer Fudd.

Answer 3

This would make for a semester long class... I answer every question from my head, I very rarely research any of my answers, but the answers that I give are the accumulated substance of my learning, reading, experiences and ability to recall. How much of any answer is truly our own? How much of the entire knowledge base known to humankind is unique to any one individual? Everything that we know of is derived from some other source.

When I answer I try to add some degree of originality or different perspective. I rarely answer any question that has a lot of answers, unless it is asking for an opinion and I would like to share a point of view that maybe has not been represented with the current answers that were given. If a question has been answered satisfactorilly already, I don't often chime in to say "Yeah, what she said..." unless I can add to the discussion in some tangible way.

A friend of mine from college and I often get on this topic - nothing is original... It's all been said and done and heard before... Any one of us knows so much, and yet so little about the world around us, and it's interesting, and many times exasperating, to see how different people reflect on the knowledge that they have accumulated through the years.

Any one of my answers would always be second, or third or more derivative than even that - as I don't know of too many topics that any one person can answer without using something that has not been already said or reported in some form or fashion.

Answer 4

How is it possible to formulate an answer,unless you do fully understand the question, I`d say impossible.As to how many answers are truly my own, I can honestly tell you that all of the answers I have given(on this site) have been `off the top of my head`, I have never looked up any.If I had to look them up before answering,I would not be qualified to answer, the knowledge comes from what I have learned and remembered or experienced and can hopefully pass on to benefit others.

Answer 5

On most topic, ones answer would be just that: second hand or something read, heard, or experienced. This is how we gain knowledge. Correct? If we hear something explained a certain way or read it somewhere, then we are more than likely going to describe it the same way because this is all we know. We can, on the other hand, still have our own opinion about a certain topic.

Answer 6

Being alive is a process of education. You pick up information all the time. You munch on it, and if it tastes good, you swallow it. If you swallow it, you retain it within you and it shapes who are. Sometimes, during a spring-cleaning, you revalue a particular snippet and may decide to toss it out.
If you don't swallow it, you spit it out and it no longer has meaning for you.
And so this how you shape your knowledge. Past and personal experiences shape your wisdom.
Studying and trying to understand other living things, and really attempting to see further than possible, gives you empathy or at least, sympathy.
I never answer technical questions, because I have no understanding of such things even if I understand the meaning of the question.
Formulating a good answer is really important. I often select a question which tells me "Be the first to answer this" but by the time I have finished reviewing and editing and getting my answer almost right, 52 answers have already been posted.
I like to answer questions such as yours as my addled brain loves the challenge of a work-out and I enjoy your questions.
And because your questions do not require second-hand or passed on answers; they can come from me directly, and it feels good to express myself so freely!

Answer 7

There is a big difference between understanding the question before you answer it and answering the question with second-hand knowledge that you have read/heard somewhere else and formulating it as your own.

A majority of our knowledge is second-hand knowledge anyway. We learn it from education, read it from books, the media also has an influence on information.

Answer 8

I think it's all of those--things read, heard, learned and experienced. Those are all parts of knowledge.

If you're speaking specifically about the answers on this forum, I see a lot more opinion than researched fact.

And in the general scheme of things, and to respond to your first question, I think knowing how to formulate a question is more than halfway toward gaining knowledge. (But apparently, I don't know how to formulate a sentence; sorry about that.)

Answer 9

Some questions require a definitive answer and these should be researched to ensure, so far as possible, that the correct information is given. Others ask for opinions and then they should be the personal views of the answerer. But we are all influenced over time by things we read and hear.

NB: This one is my own opinion and no-one else's.

Answer 10

hmmm. i like cheese. how's that for an answer? =P jk

i think understanding fully the meaning of a question is really all that is important. nothing else really matters, because once you have done that, the answer should just come out of you on it's own.

and i think my answers are truly me. except when i'm asked technical things, like about computers or history or something. then i have no idea what to say and i go google it =P

and then they pick the guy who said "thanks for the two points" for a best answer. not very encouraging, indeed. but oh well that's life.