how should one distinguish philosophical and non-philosophical question? i want facts not opinions please.?

Question

due to this recently asked question ,i am wonderin if i am in a wron category.
http://answers.yahoo.com/question/index;_ylt=Agl6my4IzaxsLg9YVeZeb3bsy6IX;_ylv=3?qid=20071120151037AAe7jLy

p.s
correction: i should have typed "wrong category"
i appologise.

dear treatsin
dictionaries,forums,wiki,ecyclopedias,librraries,my book shelf,friends,
...etc i am quite aware of these
the problem is that most of times you can not distinguish if a question is philosophically or psycologically asked because sometimes the issues
are to closed and near to each other
and seem to be similar.and this similarity make the work harder and harder if i wanted the opinions,i should have used mine as a scale because i belive there is a philosophy hidden behind any action and contemplation is an action.please add me more.thanks

Answer 1

Well what is the meaning of philosophy ?
Examination of basic concepts, knowledge, academic study devoted to truth, existence, reality, causality, and freedom.
So any question that goes along the themes above would be philosophical question.
Every thing else would be non-philosophical i.e.
Do you like that color in that shirt over there?
Does this question above cover any of subjects the above defination of study on philosophy? So look in your dictionary for the meaning and ask yourself did I answer on fact or opinion?

Answer 2

You hit the nail on the head--many people don't know a philosophical question except for "popular" philosophy such as "How do I tell someone I'm sorry," or "what is life?", or "If you lived in the rings of Jupiter, how would you decide what clothes to wear for a party?"

First: a philosophical question is one that has an answer in metaphysics, epistemology, ethics, political science (except there is a special section for that because modern political "scientists" have no more idea of what philosophy is than an ant does,) or aesthetics.
Sometimes the answer will contain elements of more than one of these subjects.
Secondly: a philosophical question must have premises--theories, if you will--in short sentences called propositions. "The earth is round,' is a feasable premise; "the earth is a square" is not a feasable premise.
In an arguement there is the major, the minor, and the conclusion proposition. Propositions must be written in plain, proper English if they are to be made sense of, because a non-sensical sentence cannot be guessed at and have any philosophical integrity. It must also follow the rules of logic.
Example:
The earth is round;
balls are round;
therefore, the earth is a ball.
To say instead, that all balls are the earth sounds ridiculuous, but people make those kinds of arguments all the time when the conclusion is not so easily recognizable as true or false.

In general, just use good old common sense, because not everyone knows the "rules" but many have excellent questions of philosophy.
You are going to get many opinions in here that the answerer thinks are philosophical answers. Ignore them. The ignorant cannot help themselves. You obviously can, so be prepared to take the worst with the best.

Answer 3

Generally there is no difference; one could ask the facts of a specific person or animal and of the person, if that person were Arthur Schopenhauer, for example, then it would be philosophical, if it was of my neighbor it would equally philosophical, but as no one here has knowledge of my neighbor, it would most likely be specialized knowledge for which one would go to a special section for that, like psychology, for example. If it were of an animal, then it would be the category pets etcetra or animal kingdom or zoology.

The wise redirect those questions for which they have not the specialied knowledge for to those that professionally do. As all questions are related to facts, all questions are philosophical, tho' some prefer questions of a less practical concrete personal problem.

Answer 4

A non-philosophical question asks facts. A philosophical question asks opinions.

But of course that's just my opinion. And I have no facts to give to this question, because there are none. Whether something is philosophical or not would be based on what we agree to be the definition of philosophical. It would be purely "user defined" and arbitrary for the community.

Answer 5

I would think that to be a philisophical question it would have to deal with the why's and wherefores of broader life issues, a non philisophical question would probably be a query directed toward seeking a practical answer ...

Answer 6

A philosophical question asks for ideas, thoughts, feelings... intangible things.

A non-philosophical question demands facts.

Answer 7

Philosophical: Do you think the Universe is infinite?
Non-philosophical: The Universe is infinite.

Answer 8

The trick with philosophy is ...dum dum dum....there is no facts. They are essentially ideas and opinions. Not proven, no scientific proof. Hence thesuffix "ology"...the study of. If you need help writing a paper e-mail me...