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Erotetics

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Logic of questions and answers

Erotetics or erotetic logic is a part of logic, devoted to logical
analysis of questions. It is sometimes called the logic of questions
and answers.

[ ]

Contents

  * 1 Overview
  * 2 See also
  * 3 References
  * 4 Sources
  * 5 External links

Overview[edit]

The idea was originally developed by Richard Whately. For example, he
noted the ambiguity of the interrogation "Why?". (1) It could be a
reason, such as why the angles of a triangle sum to two right angles,
or (2) a cause, such as why days are shorter in winter than summer,
or (3) a design requirement as in a timepiece.^[1]^[2]

In 1936 Whately's work was revived by Eugeniu Sperantia.^[3] In 1955
Mary and Arthur Prior recalled Whately's suggestion for a variable
copula to write questions symbolically. Recognizing the consequent
symbolic calculus, they note that it is insufficient for the logic of
interrogatives, which is antisymbolic.^[2]

In 1940 R. G. Collingwood published An Essay on Metaphysics in which
he examined presuppositions in statements and questions. In fact he
claimed "Every statement that anybody ever makes is made in the
answer to a question." By way of explanation, he wrote "In proportion
as a man is thinking scientifically when he makes a statement, he
knows the statement is the answer to a question and he knows what the
question is." In this sense, when thinking is scientifically ordered,
a question is logically prior to its own answer. Collingwood also
asserts that "Each question involves a presupposition".^[4]

In 1966 Nuel D. Belnap, Jr. wrote on "Questions, Answers, and
Presuppositions".^[5]

In 1963 MIT Press published Communication: a Logical Model by David
Harrah that focused on questions as pivotal in communication. The
same year Belnap published An analysis of questions: preliminary
report. C. L. Hamblin reviewed the works of Harrah and Belnap
together: he considered them a launching of erotetics into serious
consideration.^[6] Later, Nuel Belnap and T.B. Steel Jr. wrote The
Logic of Questions and Answers (1976),^[7] which came at a watershed
moment: while purportedly continuing the philosophical investigation
of Harrah, they anticipated query languages and data base management
systems. The bibliography included 25 references on question
answering and natural language understanding.

For most of the time, researchers concentrated on the relation
between questions and answers. Recently, more attention is given to
the way questions come from sentences or other questions, similar to
entailment.^[8] Some contributions in this direction are Jaakko
Hintikka's interrogative model and Andrzej Wisniewski's inferential
erotetic logic (IEL). In the interrogative model, questioning is seen
as game played between two parties. One of these parties may be
reality.

In 2011 Anna Brozek published The Theory of Questions which started
with philosophical context (ontology, epistemology), then use in
human intercourse, with a consideration of cognition and answers.
Embedded questions and situational analysis are noted, as well as
specific considerations with regard to science, psychology, and
surveys. Concluding chapters consider legal proceedings,
philosophical questions, and the history of erotetic study in Poland
in the 20th-century.^[9]

Erotetics has been used for insight into teaching: "To teach someone
something is to answer that person's questions about some subject
matter."^[10]

See also[edit]

  * Complex question
  * Contingent question
  * Display and referential questions
  * Leading question
  * Loaded question
  * Open-ended question
  * Rhetorical question
  * Scientific question
  * Socratic method
  * Suggestive question

References[edit]

 1. ^ Richard Whately (1845), Elements of Rhetoric, page 58, via
    Internet Archive
 2. ^ ^a ^b Mary Prior and Arthur Prior "Erotetic Logic", The
    Philosophical Review 64(1) (1955): pp. 43-59 doi:10.2307/2182232.
 3. ^ Eugeniu Sperantia (1936) "Remarques sur les propositions
    interrogatives". Projet d'une "logique du probleme", Actes du
    Congres International de Philosophie Scientifique, VII Logique,
    Paris,pp. 18-28.
 4. ^ R. G. Collingwood (1940) An Essay on Metaphysics at Google
    Books
 5. ^ Nuel D. Belnap, Jr. (1966) "Questions, Answers, and
    Presuppositions", The Journal of Philosophy 63(20): 609-11,
    American Philosophical Association Eastern Division Sixty-Third
    Annual Meeting.
 6. ^ C. L. Hamblin (1964) "Reviews: Communication and Analysis of
    Questions", Australasian Journal of Philosophy 42: 146-51 doi:
    10.1080/00048406412341121
 7. ^ Nuel Belnap & J.B. Steel (1976) The Logic of Questions and
    Answers, Yale University Press ISBN 0-300-01962-9
 8. ^ Joke Meheus (2001) "Adaptive logics for question evocation",
    Logique et Analyse, pages 135-164 Jstor link
 9. ^ Anna Brozek (2011) The Theory of Questions: : Erotitics through
    the Prism of its Philosophical Background and Practical
    Applications, Polish Analytical Philosophy volume 99, Brill/
    Rodopi, doi:10.1163/9789401207324
10. ^ C.J.B. MacMillan & James W. Garrison (1988) A Logical Theory of
    Teaching: Erotetics and Intensionality, Kluwer doi:10.1007/
    978-94-009-3067-4

Sources[edit]

  * Whately, Richard (1875) Elements of Logic, Longman, Green & Co.
    (9th Edition, London)
  * Jaakko Hintikka (1999) Inquiry as Inquiry: A Logic of Scientic
    Discovery, Springer books ISBN 0-7923-5477-X
  * Nicholas Rescher (2000) Inquiry Dynamics, Transaction Publishers 
    ISBN 0-7658-0007-1
  * Andrzej Wisniewski (1995) The Posing of Logical Questions,
    Springer Netherlands.

External links[edit]

  * Erotetics at PhilPapers

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