2007-07-23 06:28:10 · 9 answers · asked by knowitall 3 in Arts & Humanities ➔ Philosophy
We run to the rheotorical ones.
2007-07-23 09:16:45 · answer #1 · answered by Banana Hero [sic] 7 · 0⤊ 0⤋
Thinking about the future is purely human, and hypothetical. Animals are always in the present because they cannot think hypothetically.
2007-07-23 15:49:40 · answer #2 · answered by phil8656 7 · 0⤊ 0⤋
Our lives would be much more similar to that of the other monkeys. One of the most yawning chasms between our cognition and that of the other animals is our ability to hypothesize. It is our imagination that makes us unique as much as our language, our technology, or our opposable thumbs.
If there were no hypothetical questions, progress would slow to a crawl. Hypotheticals are one of the more sensible definitions of intelligence. The ability to conjecture and test is what gives the ability of an information processing system to exponentially increase its ability to advance its needs and desires.
Some would even argue that without hypothicals there could not be thought (in any meaningful sense). Without the "what if?" questions, we could never contemplate the future, and would never be able to question our memories of the past. The removal of hypothetical questions would limit us to be fully present at all times, simply an intake/export box of sensation and action, thoughtless, and therefore weak.
2007-07-23 13:47:32 · answer #3 · answered by Nunayer Beezwax 4 · 0⤊ 2⤋
Then there would be a lot of extremes and no impossible things :) Most hypothetical questions aren't "i wonder what would happen if I ran down this hill." Instead it is normaly like "i wonder what it would be like if I could fly" or "i wonder what would happen if I won the lottery" or "I wonder what would happen if there was a car accident and the people were flung out of the car at each other and colided."
2007-07-23 13:43:02 · answer #4 · answered by lufiabuu 4 · 0⤊ 1⤋
What if there were no redundant occurrences of hypothetical questions on Yahoo! Answers?
2007-07-23 14:51:44 · answer #5 · answered by sokrates 4 · 0⤊ 0⤋
Were that the case, I believe poor Enki would implode.
2007-07-23 15:22:30 · answer #6 · answered by Doctor Why 7 · 0⤊ 1⤋
What if I made some?
2007-07-23 13:41:47 · answer #7 · answered by shmux 6 · 0⤊ 1⤋
it would be the same as if there were no rhetorical questions. wouldn't it?
2007-07-23 14:20:38 · answer #8 · answered by Anonymous · 0⤊ 0⤋
Then................you wouldn't have asked this one!
Hey ho,
Maggie
2007-07-23 14:06:02 · answer #9 · answered by Anonymous · 0⤊ 1⤋