Questions to Ask a Philosopher
For the moment a philosopher is in the room and the floor is yours: a professor visiting your class, a speaker taking questions after a talk, a guest on your podcast or the subject of a profile you are writing. The list follows the arc that conversation usually takes, from how they got into philosophy to the problem on their desk, the way they argue, their own answers to the big questions, what the subject is good for off campus, and where a beginner should start. These are questions for the person, so if you want puzzles to debate among yourselves, that is a different page.
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The questions
Each question, and why to ask it
Their path
What question first pulled you into philosophy?
Why ask it
Most philosophers can name the puzzle that would not leave them alone, and it often dates from well before university. Ask how old they were and whether they still think about it. If the question has changed shape since, that change is their career in miniature.
Who is your favorite philosopher, and where do you think they went wrong?
Why ask it
The first half is the question everyone asks, and the second half is what makes the answer worth hearing. Admiring a thinker and agreeing with them are separate things in this subject, so the error they pick shows you what they kept and what they threw out.
What did you think philosophy was before you studied it?
Why ask it
A strong opener for a class visit, because half the room holds the same picture now: wise sayings, or arguing about nothing. Hearing how the picture was corrected tells you what the subject is like from the inside without anyone having to define it.
How do you explain your job to a stranger on a plane?
Why ask it
They have had this conversation many times and carry a tested version. Notice whether they name a topic, such as free will, or an activity, such as checking whether arguments hold up. The two open different follow-ups.
What does a working week look like for a philosopher?
Why ask it
With no lab and no archive, the job is hard to picture from outside. You are likely to hear about reading, writing, teaching, grading and talking drafts through with colleagues, so ask which of those is where the ideas actually arrive.
Was there a book, a teacher or a single argument that made you decide to do this for a living?
Why ask it
Getting hooked and choosing a career are two moments, and the second one usually has a person in it. If they name a book, write the title down: it is a reading recommendation you did not have to ask for.
Did you nearly end up in another field?
Why ask it
Plenty of philosophers arrived from mathematics, physics, law, literature or religious study, and the route tends to show in how they work. A student weighing the subject against another one should ask what finally tipped it.
What did the people around you say when you chose philosophy?
Why ask it
Almost everyone who picks the subject gets asked what they plan to do with it. How they answered then and how they would answer today are rarely the same, and a student facing that dinner table can borrow either.
Their work
Which branch of philosophy is yours, and how does it connect to the others?
Why ask it
The subject splits into ethics, the theory of knowledge, metaphysics, logic, political philosophy, the history of philosophy and a good many more, and few outsiders know the map. A minute spent here stops you from asking a logician about the meaning of life as if it were their specialty.
What problem are you stuck on at the moment?
Why ask it
'Stuck on' gets you the live difficulty, where 'working on' gets you the title of the next book. If the reply turns technical, ask where the problem shows up in an ordinary day.
Can you give me the view you are best known for in two or three sentences?
Why ask it
Read something of theirs beforehand so you can tell whether the short version matches the long one. In an interview this is the passage you will end up quoting, so say it back to them and let them correct it.
If your central claim is right, what changes for the rest of us?
Why ask it
This is 'so what?' asked politely. Some answers reach into law, medicine or how animals are treated, and others say frankly that the payoff is understanding and nothing more. Take the second kind as candor, not as a failure to justify the work.
What is the strongest objection to your own position?
Why ask it
Stating the other side at full strength is part of the training, so expect a careful reply and not a defensive one. Then ask whether they think they have answered the objection or are living with it. 'Living with it' is common and is usually the truthful version.
How do you know you have made progress when nobody can run an experiment?
Why ask it
A fair challenge, and one they will have met before. Typical replies point to a distinction nobody had drawn, a popular argument shown to fail, or a position made clearer without being settled. One such advance from their own area, made during their career, is the proof to hold out for.
Which thought experiment do you use most, and what is it built to show?
Why ask it
Runaway trolleys, brains in vats and the scientist who has never seen color are the instruments of the trade. Find out what the case is meant to isolate, then ask what they say to people who distrust conclusions drawn from situations that could never happen.
Who do you write for, and does anyone outside philosophy read it?
Why ask it
Academic articles are aimed at fellow specialists, and some philosophers also write essays or books for a general reader. If they do both, ask what gets lost in the public version. If they do not, ask whether they would like to.
Arguing
What makes an argument good, apart from reaching a conclusion you like?
Why ask it
You will hear two terms: an argument is valid when the conclusion follows from the premises, and sound when the premises are also true. Ask for a valid argument with an absurd conclusion. For a class, that one example makes the difference stick.
When did you last change your mind about something that mattered?
Why ask it
Push for the mechanism: one objection, a slow pile of doubts, a question from a student. Someone who cannot name a change in recent years is worth pressing, gently, on what it would take.
How do you disagree with someone without it turning into a fight?
Why ask it
Seminar rooms have habits for this, such as restating the other person's view until they agree you have it right, or conceding a point out loud before moving on. Pick one habit and try it in the next argument you have at home.
What do you do when two things you believe turn out to contradict each other?
Why ask it
Much of the job is this. The usual moves are to give one belief up, to find a distinction that dissolves the clash, or to hold both for now and say so. An actual pair from their own thinking is worth more than the general method.
How much weight do you give a gut feeling that a conclusion must be wrong?
Why ask it
Philosophers call these intuitions and disagree sharply about whether they count as evidence. Their reply places them in that dispute. The telling detail is a time they followed an argument against the feeling, or kept the feeling and went looking for the flaw.
Is there a position you cannot refute and still cannot accept?
Why ask it
Doubt about the outside world and the denial of free will are frequent candidates. Whatever they name marks the point where argument runs out for them, which listeners recognize from their own lives. It plays well on a podcast for that reason.
How do you tell a deep question from a confused one?
Why ask it
Some puzzles vanish once the words in them are sorted out, and some survive the sorting. One example of each makes the difference plain. Keep the answer in mind when you reach the big questions, because you can ask which kind each of those is.
Which mistake in reasoning do you notice most often outside the seminar room?
Why ask it
You will leave with a name for it: a false choice between two options, a word that shifts meaning halfway through, an attack on the speaker in place of the claim. The example they reach for may well come from your side of a debate, so decide beforehand to take it well.
Has a student ever raised an objection you could not answer on the spot?
Why ask it
Most teachers have one and remember who asked. Told in front of a class, the story does two jobs: it shows what a strong objection looks like, and it tells the students they are allowed to try.
Big questions
What do you say when someone asks you the meaning of life?
Why ask it
Everyone expects a philosopher to have this one ready, and most have a practiced reply. Some give an answer, and others take the question apart first: purpose, value, or what makes a life worth living? Whichever you get shows how they handle a question that arrives too big to answer.
Do you think we have free will, and what do you mean by the term?
Why ask it
The second half carries the weight. A widely held position, compatibilism, says freedom can exist in a world where everything has a cause, which surprises people who expected two camps. Ask what would follow for blame and praise if they turned out to be wrong.
Is anything objectively right or wrong, or is morality something people made up?
Why ask it
Do not expect a yes or a no. A useful way in is to ask how they respond to 'that is just your opinion', a line anyone who teaches ethics hears early in every course.
What do you think a good life consists of?
Why ask it
One of the oldest questions in the subject, and one a philosopher may wave off as too large. If they hedge, narrow it: when pleasure, achievement, relationships and character pull apart, which do they put first?
Do you believe in God, and has philosophy changed your answer?
Why ask it
Personal, so ask it only where the setting allows and accept a polite refusal. The philosophical part is the second half: which argument moved them, and in which direction.
What is consciousness, and do you expect the puzzle to be solved?
Why ask it
Listen for whether they treat it as a scientific problem waiting on better data or a conceptual one that data alone will not settle. That tells you where they draw the border between philosophy and science.
Could a machine ever think, or deserve moral consideration?
Why ask it
The useful part is the test they would apply, and whether behavior alone could pass it. A philosopher who works in another area may decline to give a verdict, in which case find out whose writing on it they trust.
Is it reasonable to fear death?
Why ask it
Thinkers since ancient Greece have argued that fearing the state of being dead is a mistake, and others have argued the fear is perfectly sensible. Save this for a one-on-one or a planned interview. At a public talk you cannot know who in the audience is grieving.
Can we know anything for certain, and does knowledge need certainty?
Why ask it
Expect them to pull the two apart: most would say you can know where you left your keys without being incapable of error. Have them pick the most ordinary thing they would claim to know and defend it against a skeptic.
What do we owe to strangers, to animals or to people not yet born?
Why ask it
Choose one of the three or the answer will sprawl. The follow-up that matters is whether the conclusion has changed anything they do, because that leads straight into what philosophy is like outside the classroom.
Which big question do you think philosophy has actually answered?
Why ask it
This meets the charge that nothing in the subject is ever settled. Some will point to fields such as physics and psychology that grew out of philosophy once their questions could be tested. Others will name a view that was once respectable and that almost nobody defends now.
Beyond campus
What is philosophy for, if you are not going to teach it?
Why ask it
Ask it plainly. They have heard the hostile version and tend to welcome a curious one. The better replies name a skill, such as spotting the assumption nobody stated, over a slogan about learning to think.
Has philosophy changed how you live, or only how you think?
Why ask it
Look for something you could observe: what they eat, how they give money away, how they handled a hard decision. 'Less than I would like' is also a real answer, and often the start of the best part of an interview.
What can philosophy do that science cannot?
Why ask it
The usual reply covers what we ought to do, what words like cause and knowledge mean, and what a finding implies once it is in. Where that line has moved in their lifetime, and whether it will keep moving, is the follow-up for a science class.
Can you name an idea that began in philosophy and ended up changing everyday life?
Why ask it
Answers range from arguments about rights and tolerance to the formal logic that computing later built on. Press for the route the idea took: who picked it up outside the university, and how many years went by before anyone did.
Should philosophers be in the room when hospitals, companies or governments make hard choices?
Why ask it
Some serve on ethics committees and advisory boards, and how that works differs from one country and institution to the next, so ask what it looks like where they are. If they have sat on one, the case they were least sure about is the story to get, in whatever detail they are free to share.
What should children be taught about thinking that most are not?
Why ask it
One for the teachers and parents in the audience. The starting age they would choose is worth having, and so is the last time they tried a philosophical question on a young child and what came back.
Do people who study ethics behave any better than the rest of us?
Why ask it
Ask it with a smile and you will get a candid reply about the gap between knowing and doing. If they say no, the natural next question is what the study of ethics is for.
What do your former students do now?
Why ask it
Asking about their own students gets you real cases in place of a general claim about philosophy graduates, which would depend on the country, the university and the year. If you are choosing a course, ask the department itself what it records about where graduates go.
Is it hard to switch the philosopher off at home?
Why ask it
A warm way to end this part of the conversation. People who live with philosophers tend to have a story about being asked to define their terms over breakfast, and with luck you will hear one.
Starting out
If I read one book to find out whether philosophy is for me, which should it be?
Why ask it
Hold them to one title and ask why that one. Tell them what you already enjoy reading first, since a novel reader and a mathematics student ought to get different answers.
Should a beginner start with the old texts or with a modern introduction?
Why ask it
Philosophers disagree about this, so you are hearing a preference and not a rule. Whichever way they lean, get the first title and how many pages to attempt at a sitting.
How do you read a difficult philosophy text without giving up?
Why ask it
Common advice is to find the conclusion first, hunt for the premises second, and plan on reading it again. Ask how long a dense page takes them. The number is usually a relief to hear.
Which thinkers or traditions were left out of your own training, and where should I start with them?
Why ask it
What a philosophy degree covers varies by country and by department, so this is about their syllabus and not the subject as a whole. A name and one short text is the answer to hold out for. If they have since added that material to their own teaching, find out what it did to the course.
What should a student do to get good at this, besides reading?
Why ask it
Writing short arguments and having them taken apart, speaking up in seminar and explaining a view to a friend outside the subject all tend to come up. The one they neglected as a student, and what it cost them, is the part to write down.
Would you tell a student who loves philosophy to major in it?
Why ask it
What they say will depend on what a degree costs and leads to where they teach, so take it as one person's advice and find out what they tell their own students. If they suggest pairing it with a second subject, the one they pick tells you what they think philosophy lacks on its own.
What question should I leave this room still thinking about?
Why ask it
The closer. It hands them the last word and gives everyone listening something to carry out the door. At a class visit, write it on the board and open the next lesson with it.
How to question a philosopher and get more than a lecture
Practical guidance for the conversation itself
Before you raise your hand
Find out which kind of philosopher this is
A philosopher of mathematics and a medical ethicist share a job title and not much else. Look at a faculty page or the summary of one article, then choose from Big questions the items nearest their field. For the others, make clear you are asking them as a thoughtful person and not as the authority.
Know what you want to walk away with
A student usually wants a reading list and a sense of whether the subject suits them, so lean on Their path and Starting out. An interviewer wants two or three passages worth quoting, which tend to come from Their work and Beyond campus. Someone in an audience gets one turn, and should pick a single question from Arguing or Big questions.
Ask for their view, then the reasons
Left alone, many philosophers will survey five positions and commit to none, because that is how the subject is usually taught. 'Which of those do you hold?' followed by 'why that one and not its nearest rival?' moves them from survey to argument, which is where they are best.
Ask for a case
When a reply climbs into abstraction, ask for an example with a person in it: a doctor, a juror, a parent. Philosophers think in cases all the time and will have one ready. It is also the part of the answer you will still remember a week later.
Four rooms, four ways to ask
A visit to your class
Share the questions out beforehand so twenty students do not all ask about the meaning of life. Open with the one about what they thought philosophy was before they studied it, give the middle of the hour to one or two big questions the class has already argued over, and finish with the single book they would recommend.
The question time after a talk
You get one question, so keep it under twenty seconds and tie it to something they said from the stage. The strongest objection to their position, or what would change if they were right, both work with a microphone in your hand. Skip anything about their life story: it suits a conversation and stalls a hall.
A podcast or recorded interview
Start with the problem they are stuck on while they are fresh, and hold the life questions for the second half, when they have relaxed. Listeners remember stories and examples, so each time an answer stays general, ask when it last came up in their own life. Agree in advance whether the questions on God and death are welcome.
A student interviewing a professor for an assignment
Email ahead with your purpose, the time you need and three of the questions. Fifteen minutes covers about six questions if you follow up properly, so mark your six and treat the remainder as spares. Before you leave, read back any sentence you intend to quote.
What makes a philosopher sigh
The speech with a question mark on the end
Every question time has one: three minutes of the asker's own theory, then 'would you agree?'. If you have a view, compress it into one sentence and ask what is wrong with it. You will get a better reply and the room will thank you.
Hearing 'it depends what you mean' as a dodge
Sorting out the terms is the method, not a way of avoiding the question. When they ask what you mean by free or by real, choose a meaning and say it. The conversation speeds up the moment you do.
Trying to win
They have spent years on objections sharper than the one you thought of on the way in. Offer yours as something you cannot get past and would like help with. You lose nothing, and they will often improve your objection before answering it.
Quoting a famous line at them
A line from Nietzsche or Socrates pulled from a poster is frequently out of context, and they will feel obliged to say so. Ask what the thinker meant by it instead, which turns a correction into a short and useful lesson.
Asking them to rule on everything
A specialist in the philosophy of language has no special standing on bioethics, and most will tell you so. 'Who should I read on that?' is the question that respects the limit and still gets you somewhere.
Three follow-ups to keep in your pocket
After they state a position
'What is the best reason to think the opposite?' works on nearly any view in the subject. A second option is 'who disagrees with you, and what would they say right now?', which brings the absent opponent into the room.
After they draw a distinction
'Can you give me one case that falls on each side?' checks that the distinction is real and makes it easier to remember. If a case turns out to sit on the line, you have found the interesting part, so stay there.
After you lose the thread
Say so at once: 'Could you put that the way you would for a first-year student?' Explaining things to beginners is a large part of a professor's job, and nobody in the room will think less of you. Nodding along costs you the answer and every answer built on it.