Do questions like "Why should I be moral?" or "Why shouldn't I be selfish?" have definitive answers as do some questions in other Areas of Knowledge? Does having a definitive answer make a question more or less important?

Similarly, in mathematic field, there are many questions that were not answered in a given lifetime. For example, the ancient math problem of circle squaring was unsolved for over 2000 years. Similarly, the most famous math problem in modern mathematics, Fermat's Last Theorem, was unsolved for more than 300 years. Questions like these are the driving forces behind our critical thinking. The answer is not what's important, how we arrive at an answer, or the process, is what's important. Just the perseverance of finding a definitive answer for these questions, people do not think about giving up and on the journey of finding the answer, they usually discover something that is even more precious than the answer of this question.

        Thus, it is fair to conclude that finding an answer to a question does not make a question more or less important because the significance of question is not necessarily to answer it but it can be a tool to learn knowledge and the knowledge gained through the process of finding an answer is much more meaningful than just the sense of accomplishment when the answer is found.

        There are other knowledge areas where finding an answer to a question means a lot. For example, scientists have struggled for many years to find the exact structure of the atom. Even though they discovered a lot of things that are relevant and substantial along the way but they insisted on the discovery of atom because finding the exact structure of the atom would means progress towards other areas of knowledge through linkages between them. From Aristotle’s the most basic “periodic table” of air, water, earth and fire to the Dalton’s billiard ball model to Thomson’s raison buns theory until the actual structure of atom discovered by Rutherford and Bohr, the question about the structure of atom is eventually answered. The answer to this question is the key of this question since the answer is reachable with our modern technology. However, by answering this question the question itself does not change and its significance neither enhanced nor debased.

        A possible uncertainty emerged, the word significance is another interesting topic, significance means importance but how do we identify whether something is important or not. Something would be important if it affects us somehow. Hence, as alluded before, even the cure to retro viruses has not yet been found but the significance or importance of this did not change because the discovery of reverse transcriptase has affected us in a good way. Moreover, the discovery of the structure of the atom has also potentially helped human beings’ understanding in science and nature, and it is also important. Bias also plays a part in determining the importance of something, for scientists answering a scientific question is very important and has great significance but to a social worker solving problems within families would meant more to them.

        There are a lot of questions that has existed for a very long time, but they are still not answered because human beings cannot summarize an answer that is suitable for everyone since everyone has their own answers. The question “what is the meaning of life?” has puzzled generations after generations, many people pursued finding an answer for this question, nevertheless the questions is still there unanswered. People ask themselves this question many times and some give up and live their life the way it meant to be, but some people kept pursuing it. For example, in our English class since September, we have been focused on existentialism and the meaning of life. After studying and analyzing few books and plays we have not yet got an answer because each protagonist faced their own problems and either solved with their own way or just ignored the problem. Meursault in the Outsider has ignored the question all together and lived his life passively.  He thinks that life is meaningless and he does not care about anything. But for Shukhov in the novel One day in the life of Ivan Denosovich, life has a meaning that is to live the best you can.  Hence, there is not a definitive answer for the meaning of life but this question is important to human beings to sustain our faith in life so we could continue our lives but not give up.

Therefore, questions like “Why should I be moral?” or “Why shouldn’t I be selfish?” do not have definitive answers because these questions are ethic questions which means that they are closely related to each individual’s cultural backgrounds. Also, answers to these questions are based on personal opinions and everyone differs from others according to their own biases. For instance, my friend and I would both have a definitive answer to these two questions, but these two kinds of definitive answers would differ due to the different cultural background we have. Here, cultural background not only points to religion and life style, it also means experiences in life. Since no one would have the same life experiences as others have, therefore, it is very hard to generalize a definitive answer that would fit for everyone.

However, questions in some other areas of knowledge would have generalized definitive answers because there are areas of knowledge that all the people would have the same background to refer to. For example, a question of 1+1, everyone would have a definitive answer of 2, because from the time we start to encounter math problems we were taught that 1+1=2. Hence, this “life experience” allowed us the same mathematical background.

        Sometimes people could not generalize a definitive answer for a particular question, they resort into violence and war. Germany did not want to agree the Treaty of Versailles after World War I, because Germany thought the cause of the War was not solely her fault, but other countries thought it was the Germans who started this horrible war. This problem of justification has made Germany greatly resented the guilt clause, a fact that would come back to haunt the world twenty years later.

        Asking questions are an essential process of learning but not all questions have a generalized definitive answer due to the different aspects of individual such as education, and culture. However, answering a question does not necessarily change the significance of one question because the different definition of significance everyone has. Therefore, coming up with an answer is difficult but the process of answering a question is significant.

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