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Mr_Bombastic

When someone asks a question, they do it for one reason. They don't know the answer. It has nothing to do with intelligence. It simply means that they do not know the answer. Saying that a question is stupid is simply a matter of personal opinion. So no. There is no such thing as a stupid question.

AlexOland

There are stupid people in the world. So why can't there be stupid questions? Calling a question "stupid" does not mean you will not answer the question and inform the the person who is asking the question. Actually, when you be honest and call someone's question "stupid", they will realize how little attention they gave to the subject and they will try to better themselves. If a college student asks what a square root is, I think he deserves being called "stupid".

Mr_Bombastic

@AlexOland excuse me, but I don't see how someone could possibly be admitted to college without knowing what a square root is. So the question would never be asked.

AlexOland

@Mr_Bombastic That was just an over the top example. Do not take it too literally. If you want to, you can say that the student became too uninterested that he actually started to forget some basic operations. If you also assume that he went to law college or something, it becomes probable. But as I said, do not take it literally. 

LogicVault

@AlexOland
Over the top examples do not help the discussion. Exaggeration is used as a tactic to sway people's point of view. It's a form of manipulation. A reasonable debate should not involve manipulation, only facts. It is a fact that even the smartest people in the world do not know some things. It does not make a person stupid to not know something. Even if it's considered common knowledge to you. We only know what we have learned. If a person has never been introduced to certain information, they will not know some variables about the topic. It does not make them stupid, because they may still have the comprehension to easily understand it once it has been explained to them. It is quite possible that a recluse with genius intellect exists. As a recluse, they would not be aware of many things in the world, but with genius intellect they would easily comprehend the information once they were exposed to it. They may even have to ask about it even though it's considered common knowledge to those of us that are not recluses and actually participate in the social world. So, no, there is no such thing as a stupid question. Only people who feel that others are stupid for asking something that they think everyone should already know. It's all about perspective.

AlexOland

@LogicVault Writing emotional quotes and acting like these quotes are arguments is more deceptive in my opinion. That example could not be there and my argument would still stand as it is. If there are stupid people, there are stupid questions. If a man with an IQ of 70 comes and asks: "I have 1 rock. I got 1 more rock. How many rocks do I have now?" that is a stupid question.

 Stupid(adj): having or showing a great lack of intelligence or common sense.
 So, by definition, questions can be stupid if they show great lack of intelligence or common sense. I do not see what the counter-argument is when the definition is something this clear. There are smart people and there are stupid people. I know there are movies that try to show that IQ does not matter and everyone is smart and stuff but in reality, IQ is pretty accurate when measuring intelligence.

AlexOland

@LogicVault You assume that every question is about a lack of information. This is not true. People can have all the information they need but they might not be smart enough to connect all the information. If the information is so easy and requires little intelligence to connect and some people can still not connect it, those people probably have low IQ.

 So, asking how 2 pieces of informations connect when the connection is obvious makes the question a stupid one. A simple question in a test would not be a stupid question because it does not show lack of intellect. A person asking a very simple question because he does not have the answer would make the question a stupid one because it would show his lack of intellect. This is all by definition.
 Stupid(adj): having or showing a great lack of intelligence or common sense.

LogicVault

@AlexOland
What is obvious to you may not be obvious to another due to lack of experience. Sure, there are stupid people that have all the necessary information but still unable to make connections. But there are people with adequate intellect, yet lack of experience, that require more information in order to make the connection. Therefore, it's not a matter of whether the question is stupid, but if the person asking it is stupid. There is no stupid question, only stupid people.

AlexOland

@LogicVault
 Stupid(adj): having or showing a great lack of intelligence or common sense.
 If a question is showing the person's lack of intellect, the question is a stupid one. I am going by the definition here. I am not sure what exactly you are objecting to. Yes, not every simple question is a stupid question. But the title is: "is there no such thing as a stupid question?" the answer to that is no. There can be stupid questions just like there can be stupid acts. 

 The question is: "Does it show a lack of intellect or common sense?"

LogicVault

@AlexOland
Technically, the person is stupid, not the question. According to the definition as well. Questions do not have an intellect, the person asking it does. So when someone calls a questions stupid, what they really mean is the person asking it is stupid.

AlexOland

@LogicVault I do not follow. I know I am posting it in every comment but I will post it yet again:
 Stupid(adj): having or showing a great lack of intelligence or common sense.

 Yes, the question itself is not lacking intellect it just shows that the person is lacking intellect. That is included in the definition as well: "having or showing..."
 What you are claiming is that the adjective "stupid" can only be used next to a person. That is wrong. That is not how it has been used and that is not what it means. 

LogicVault

@AlexOland
"That is not how it has been used and that is not what it means." That is an incorrect statement. People have been incorrect for years when they use the phrase "stupid question". Something has to have intelligence in order to have a lack of. Questions are just sounds that we produce according to the language we are speaking to convey a thought. Sounds are not a physical creature, they have no intelligence. The person or creature can be stupid, but not the sounds they make to convey a thought. The thought can be stupid, but not the sounds that the creature makes.

AlexOland

@LogicVault You are trying to define the word "stupid" in your own way. I already presented the definition, you can not make stuff up and claim that they are how they should be. Again, the definition is clear:
 Stupid(adj): having or showing a great lack of intelligence or common sense.

 Please clarify what exactly it is that you are objecting to? You say that everyone who uses "stupid" by the definition is wrong but show no valid explanation to why it should be considered wrong. 

 What you are doing is, you are redefining the word "stupid" as you wish and then you are claiming that everyone who does not use this redefinition is wrong. You can't just redefine words as you wish and expect people to accept your definitions. If that was the case, everyone could "win" every debate by redefining every word as they wish.

Mr_Bombastic

@AlexOland does a question have an IQ? It does not. Therefore, by your definition, it cannot be stupid.

Mr_Bombastic

@LogicVault Also, claiming that a question is stupid is nothing but a subjective opinin. Someone with a master's degree might think the majority of people ask stupid questions. That's just his over educated opinion.

AlexOland

@Mr_Bombastic Look... I know you two have your own definitions of "stupid" in your head and I know you are not willing to change that (I do not know why, though). What I am saying is, the meaning of the word "stupid" is not actually what you think it to be. This is easily provable when we look at the definition:
 Stupid(adj): having or showing a great lack of intelligence or common sense.

 A question may not "have" a lack of intelligence but it can "show" a lack of intelligence. Therefore, by definition, I am right. I can not comprehend what part of this you are objecting to. 

 "Also, claiming that a question is stupid is nothing but a subjective opinin." it is kind of subjective but not completely. Extremely simple questions can be agreed upon to be "stupid" by people with decent IQ. But there is not a completely defined line to what is stupid and what is not. Just like there is not a definite line to who is considered stupid or not.

"Someone with a master's degree might think the majority of people ask stupid questions. That's just his over educated opinion." No. A man that is more intelligent might think the questions are simpler than what he usually thinks about but he too will be able to see the different levels of complicatedness. At the bottom(and around) of these levels of complicatedness lies "stupidity". A somewhat complicated question will still indicate intelligence, thus, preventing the man from using the word "stupid" which means "lack of intelligence". But the man will also recognize the extremely simple types of questions which he will have the right to call "stupid".

 The idea of "stupidness" comes from being below the average by a large amount. Because this "large amount" is not defined clearly, some people may think somethings are stupid and some may not. They will all agree though that there are somethings that are so close to the bottom that they are in fact stupid. We know there are stupid people. We just don't know what line they have to cross to be considered "not stupid".

LogicVault

@AlexOland
The way you are using the word is not how it is defined. Not even by the definition you give. The definition you give is correct, but the way you use the word does not match the definition. Questions are just words that convey a thought. Questions do not have a brain. Calling a question stupid is the same as calling water stupid, a rock stupid, a chunk of metal stupid, etc. It's the person asking the question that is possibly stupid, not the question itself. You are wrong even by your own definition.

AlexOland

@LogicVault No, I am not. You clearly have not read any of my arguments.
 Stupid(adj): having or showing a great lack of intelligence or common sense.

 A question does not have a great lack of intelligence but it can show a lack of intelligence. How many times have I stated this already?

https://dictionary.cambridge.org/dictionary/english/stupid
further proof.

 "silly or unwise; showing poor judgement or little intelligence"
 example: He now thinks that retiring early was a stupid thing to do.

 I even have an example where it is used the way I claim now. I have no idea how anyone can object to this. 

LogicVault

@AlexOland
"No, I am not. You clearly have not read any of my arguments." I despise when people like you say things like that when it's obvious that I addressed what you said specifically. I responded in detail that fits exactly what you said. You claiming that I did not read it is an insult. The problem is that you do not accept the answer I gave you. That's your problem to deal with, not mine. Do not project your issues onto me. Either take the answer I gave you or begone with you. Due to the trolls that lurk this website, I am becoming less tolerant of people like you that make claims based on their feelings. like "you didn't answer me". You was answered. Either respond to the answer or shut up. It's an answer whether you like it or not.

"A question does not have a great lack of intelligence but it can show a lack of intelligence." "Show" and "have" are two different words with completely different meanings. A question can show that the PERSON lacks intelligence. That still means it's the person who is stupid, not the question. Something has to have intelligence to start with before it can be called stupid.

"How many times have I stated this already?" How many times are you going to miss the point? At this point, you are the one portraying stupidity because you do not understand what is being explained to you. Words can not be stupid. They are just words. The person saying them is stupid, not the words themselves.

The rest of what you said is covered by what I just said.

MayCaesar

I would define a question as "stupid" if its self-inconsistency is evident upon closer inspection. For example, consider this question: "If milk chocolate is white, then why is the sky blue?" This is a "stupid" question, because its premise (correlation between the color of chocolate and the color of the sky) pretty obviously makes little sense.

Now, this question can be turned into a smart question with some elaboration. For example, "Milk chocolate is white, and the sky is blue. What causes them to be such colors, and why are they different colors based on that?" This is a very good physical question, and, in fact, if you understand how to properly answer it, then you already know much more about optics than the vast majority of the global population.

This elaboration, however, is essential. In the lack of the conjecture between two parts of the question, it is absolutely impossible to understand the underlining meaning of the question, and it makes the question itself ambiguous, devoid of sense and "stupid".

AlexOland

@LogicVault Even if we assume that:
 Stupid(adj): having or showing a great lack of intelligence or common sense.
 this definition does not prove my case(which it does) I already have shown a dictionary that has a clear example. You despise when people like me says these things? Maybe that is because they are right? Because I literally presented evidence that "stupid" can be used the way I claim. 

https://dictionary.cambridge.org/dictionary/english/stupid

 "silly or unwise; showing poor judgement or little intelligence"
 example: He now thinks that retiring early was a stupid thing to do.

 Look at the example. This alone proves that "stupid" can be used next to something that is not a person. There is no way you can get around this. Just admit it already, you were wrong. Things other than persons can be stupid. I have shown an example. You ignored it of course because you have no case. There is no counter-argument to this.
 example: He now thinks that retiring early was a stupid thing to do.

LogicVault

@AlexOland
"You despise when people like me says these things? Maybe that is because they are right?" For the exact opposite, because you're wrong and how you can't see it.

"Because I literally presented evidence that "stupid" can be used the way I claim." No, you quoted a definition that by it's literal meaning it doesn't support your idea. Sure, a great number of people attempt to use it as meaning an action is stupid, but they fail to recognize it's the thought that led to the action that is stupid.

"This alone proves that "stupid" can be used next to something that is not a person." Incorrectly used. It's fairly common for people to use terminology incorrectly. Slang for example. Sure, some slang terms end up acquiring a definition that supports it's slang usage, but this one has not yet. The definition still explains that it pertains to intelligence, not actions. When we say someone did something stupid, it means the thought that led to that action was stupid. Out of a desire to shorten the path to conveying that thought, we end up technically using the term incorrectly. But, whether consciously or subconsciously, we know it's the thought that led to the action that was stupid because actions do not have intelligence. The person committing the action does.

"Things other than persons can be stupid." Wrong. Otherwise we could call water stupid, or a rock, or a brick, etc. These things are not stupid because they are not supposed to have intelligence. Intelligence or lack thereof requires consciousness.

LogicVault

@MayCaesar
Technically, the question can't be stupid because words do not have consciousness. The person who had the thought that led to the question does and therefore is the thing that is stupid. The person is the stupid thing, the question is simply incoherent.

AlexOland

@LogicVault ; It is not slang because the slang use is included in a different heading:
https://dictionary.cambridge.org/dictionary/english/stupid
Formal use: silly or unwise; showing poor judgment or little intelligence.
Informal use: annoying, or causing a problem.

 This example:
"He now thinks that retiring early was a stupid thing to do."
was mentioned under the "formal" use of the word.

 The definition has examples for us to properly understand what it means. Examples show exactly what I claim. 

 If you believe this was a simple typo, here are more dictionaries that supports me:

https://www.collinsdictionary.com/dictionary/english/stupid
"Your father wouldn't have asked such a stupid question."

https://en.oxforddictionaries.com/definition/stupid
"‘that is such a stupid question’"

http://www.dictionary.com/browse/stupid
"a stupid question."

https://www.vocabulary.com/dictionary/stupid
"You can make a stupid mistake when you’re not thinking"


 I believe the discussion has ended, yes?

Ampersand

Mr_Bombastic said:

When someone asks a question, they do it for one reason. They don't know the answer. It has nothing to do with intelligence. It simply means that they do not know the answer. Saying that a question is stupid is simply a matter of personal opinion. So no. There is no such thing as a stupid question.

"When someone asks a question, they do it for one reason. They don't know the answer."

False. People can ask questions for lots of reasons. They can ask it as a rhetorical question to try and prove a point. They can ask it out of spite to try and make someone make the effort to prove a point in a debate even if they don't acutally dispute it.

Also someone not knowing the answer is not mutually exclusive with the point not being stupid, so the defence is ineligible.

"It has nothing to do with intelligence."

it seems like it has a lot to do with intelligence. Would intelligent people ask "Does 2+2 = 4?"

"Saying that a question is stupid is simply a matter of personal opinion."

Something being subjective doe snot mean it is irrelevant. How people define good and evil and right and wrong is entirely subjective, but that does not mean it isn't real of a major issue.

Mr_Bombastic

Look at it this way. I'm a master electrician.  Someone asks me a question about basic electronics. Something I learned 20 years ago. Is that a stupid question? A question can only seem stupid because of personal opinion. A person asks questions to gain knowledge. That's it. So no question can be stupid. You might think it's stupid.  But that's just your opinion.

MayCaesar

@LogicVault

But isn't a question asked by a stupid person stupid? After all, a question in itself does not mean much outside the context, and if a stupid person asks it, then there is probably stupidity involved in the logical path towards asking that question.

I just realized that Debra gives all of us red marks for consideration of questions, because we keep using the word "stupid" that it detects as inconsiderate.