Profession

I recently read an article where a doctor remarked that he had considered becoming a philosopher but eventually realized that he "didn't have the knack for asking the right sort of philosophical questions." Also, philosophy graduate school applications I read often say that they want the writing sample to demonstrate an ability to detect fruitful areas of philosophical inquiry. Is the ability to pick up on the "right" philosophical questions a skill that can be honed?

Comments

Yes it is. But now I suppose you expect me to say how. You are asking a lot. Here are a few tips.

(1) Look for a question that is small but not trivial. It’s often a good idea to look for a question that is about a specific argument for a big claim, rather than a question directly about the big claim itself. This gives you focus and specificity. It also gives you automatic structure, since it gives you the distinction between the issue of whether the premises are acceptable and the issue of whether the conclusion follows from the premises.

(2) Look for a question that is relatively clear (though you may still need to spend a lot of effort making it clearer).

(3) Look for a question that immediately suggests different readings that you can distinguish. More generally, look for a question that will enable you to make useful distinctions.

(4) Look for a new question that looks like an old question that already has an excellent philosophical answer that you understand well. Then see whether you can develop an analogous answer to the new question. As in most areas of life, you hone your skill in philosophy by imitation. (This is a point that Thomas Kuhn emphasised about science.) Fill your head with lots of examples of good question-answer pairs that other philosophers have produced, then use these old questions as models for selecting new questions. This way you get models for new answers at the same time. This is important, since one of the main things that makes for a good philosophical question is that it has a good answer that you can give.

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