Notable Thinkers

“You can't connect the dots
looking forward;
you can only connect them
looking backward”

Co-Founder of Apple

Let us see what notable thinkers, down through history, have said about questions. Let's begin with Socrates. There is a pattern. Let's look backwards to connect the dots.

I have no special talent.
I am only passionately curious.
~ Albert Einstein

Curiosity drove these great thinkers to ask themselves questions. This led to their historical reputations and accomplishments.

Socrates

Socrates, (470–399 BC) a Greek who lived in Athens 2,400 years ago, is credited with developing the Socratic Method. He used this method to challenge assumptions and encourage critical thinking in his students. They included some of the most famous philosophers in history, such as Plato. For many decades law colleges have been using the same method to teach.

The Socratic Method is where the teacher/professor instructs by asking students questions to cause students to think - to ask themselves questions. The Socratic Method is the Questioning Method.

“I know you won’t believe me,
but the highest form
of human excellence
is to question oneself
and others.”
~ Socrates

Founder of Western Philosophy

“I cannot teach anybody anything.
I can only make them think”

Socrates

NOTE: A link to the book "The Socratic Way of Questioning" by publisher Thinknetic can be found at the bottom of this page.

Peter Abelard

Peter Abelard (1069 - 1142) French “The key to wisdom is this - constant and frequent questioning, for by doubting we are led to question and by questioning we arrive at the truth.” (Truth is an answer.)

The question is the only path
to questions, knowledge,
understanding,
wisdom and truth.

Sir Francis Bacon

Scientific Method

Sir Francis Bacon (1566 - 1626) an Englishman developed the Scientific Method. Scientists are after knowledge. Knowledge is an accumulation or an amalgamation of answers. Answers come from questions/thinking. The first active step in the Scientific Method is to ask a question. To ask a question is to seek Knowledge.

Nobody teaches us as children or as adults the art and craft of asking questions. Yet, the question is the only path to knowledge, understanding, wisdom and Truth.

NOTE: A link to the book "The Scientific Method" by Gordon Holman can be found at the bottom of this page.

René Descartes

René Descartes (1596 – 1650) French mathematician who developed the system named after him; Cartesian Coordinates which we are all familiar with today. It is the X-Y-Z graphic system for 3-dimential space. He is also know for “Cartesian Doubt”.

“Cartesian Doubt” is a form of methodological skepticism associated with the writings and methodology of René Descartes (Cartesian doubt is also known as Cartesian skepticism, methodic doubt, methodological skepticism, universal doubt, systematic doubt, or hyperbolic doubt.)

To doubt
or be skeptical
is to question.

"In order to seek truth,
it is necessary once
in the course of our life
to doubt (to question),
as far as possible,
of all things."
René Descartes

mathematician - scientist - philosopher

There is no learning
without having
to pose a question

~ Richard Feynman

Theoretical Physicist

1965 Nobel Prize in Physics

The question is the only path
to knowledge, understanding,
wisdom and truth.

"I keep six honest serving men,
They taught me all I knew;
Their names are:
What?
Why?
When?
How?
Where?
and Who?"
Rudyard Kipling

1907 Nobel Prize in Literature

The power to question
is the basis
of all human progress.
~ Indira Gandhi

Former
Prime Minister of India
from 1966 to 1984

What Indira Gandhi recognized is true and yet the question accounts for much more. The power of the question is the basis for humankind's very existence. It allows us to adapt, survive and thrive.

Great Thinkers
are

Great Questioners

A Pattern

“To understand
is to perceive patterns”

Isaiah Berlin

Russian-British philosopher

The process of questioning is fundamental to human activity. Its known use and effectiveness has been a conscious, intentional pattern employed across a spectrum of different countries and cultures over a span of 2,500 years. Most importantly, these great thinkers recognized the question was fundamental to their quests for answers. This is not a coincidence. It is a universal pattern.

Thinking is:
the process of
asking ourselves questions.

“I cannot teach anybody anything. I can only make them think”

Socrates

“I cannot teach anybody anything.
I can only make them think”