Answering Yes/No Questions
A conversation in church yesterday got me thinking about yes/no questions and how a kind, honest person who knows the true answer might reply. Note that those characteristics of the respondent rules out replies like I don’t know
and what do you mean?
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Do you use Geany’s IDE features like linting, error reporting, and project management?
Should I wear my brown socks?
Does the moon orbit the earth?
They actually mutually orbit their shared center of mass, which is roughly 4700 km from the center of the earth, and even that’s not quite right because of all the gravity from all the other bodies in the solar system that make their paths not look like perfect orbits.
Have you stopped beating your spouse?
The answer yes
would imply I used to beat my spouse but am not doing so now. The answer no
would imply I am still beating my spouse. The truth is I do not have a spouse and have never beaten anyone, but the question to not admit that truth as an answer.
Is the answer to question 3 on the quiz
True”?”
As a professional teacher, I get many questions to which the best reply is that’s a great question, what’s the answer?
Thinking through questions is a key part of intellectual growth and a teacher answering those questions is bad pedagogy.
Did (other student) get a higher grade than me on the exam?
There are many reasons why an answer might not be good. It might be inappropriate; it might enable future bad behavior; it might simply distract from what should be the current focus.
As I reflect on questions I’ve asked God in prayer, I believe I’ve asked some in each category. But in the moment I don’t think I pay much attention to that: I tend to see all kinds of non-answers as the same, even though I know a non-answer can come for many reasons.