Is It Better To Ask Or Answer?

The famous Spanish writer Miguel de Cervantes was famous for his sense of humor. With great sarcasm he went on to say that “each one is as God made him and many times even worse.” Without entering into personal judgments, we do want to ask a question, do you think it is better to ask or answer?

It is clear that in the world there are all kinds of people and personalities. It should not be generalized. However, it is no less true that we should not judge attitudes and ways of being, but on many occasions it is inevitable.

In this sense, when we make value judgments, we can think that a person is very heavy because they are constantly asking. Or that another is a know-it-all because she answers any question as if nothing escapes her knowledge.

Ask or answer

If we look at the writer and philosopher Ricardo Menéndez Salmón, in some of his works we find a peculiar mantra that he himself has declared in various interviews: “ Don’t answer, ask; not to illustrate, to inquire ”.

We can extract a lesson from the words of Menéndez Salmón. It is better to ask. That is, even if you know the answers, we have to go further. Don’t stop at what you already know. Don’t stop at what you know.

We could say that Menéndez Salmón invites us to continue questioning everything. Continue inquiring. Convert your existence into a constant desire for knowledge to locate in philosophy the freedom that only thought is capable of granting.

However, it is also true that teaching, according to a study carried out by researcher Barry Hewlett, is something programmed into our own genetic code. Can knowledge be transferred without answering the questions?

Questions with and without answers

Sometimes we act without thinking too much and ask questions that we already know the answer to. Has it never happened to you that when you reflect a little on the question you discover that you really really know the result?

However, as we already said, the best way to learn is usually through experience, with the classic empirical method of trial and error and also through questions. However, to question, we need someone to answer, right?

We will not always know the result shortly after verbalizing a question, as there are questions whose answers escape us because they are complex, due to lack of knowledge or perhaps because they have not been properly considered.

However, it is true that we have all been brought up in a social system in which asking and answering form an inseparable whole. Both the student and the educator form an indissoluble society of questions and results, as if it were a contest.

Ask or answer, where are you?

Having seen all the above, we repeat the question, is it better to ask or answer? If we serve Menéndez Salmón, we must always question and try to go further. Is this the best option?

To respond, we echo a unique survey that went viral a few months ago. In it, to know the type of person you are, you had to answer different illustrated questions to learn about habits and customs.

Among the nice questions, you had to choose between those who drink coffee or tea, eat checkered or whole chocolate, if you have discipline or everything costs you horrors, if you love cats or prefer dogs …

That is, it was necessary to answer a complete questionnaire to find out what kind of people you are among, knowing the different edges of your personality, your way of being and your way of facing each situation. I mean, you had to be one of those who respond.

In conclusion

In reality, asking or answering are part of a whole. One is not better than the other, frankly. They are simply two issues that do not hold one without the other. Good and evil, cold and heat… All are two sides of the same coin that can be nuanced according to the nature and personality of each phenomenon or person.

You are not better or worse for asking or answering. It is simply advisable to apply common sense to each situation. Using the knowledge, sometimes we will be teachers and other students. Be that as it may, it is necessary not to accept dogmas and to continue questioning everything, because from each answer new questions always arise that well deserve to be answered.