With any question, why is it always so helpful to know why the answer is the one that is? In another words, which principle of thinking and learning is most closely tied to question “why”? Or is it purely social act of expressing deeper interest? Is questioning for reasons mandatory?
I feel I know the answer to this question intuitively, but find it hard to express it into words without it sounding stereotypical and lazy.
This seems bizarre, because it’s children who are most “famous” for asking “why” all the time, but: How would you, say explain to a child, why do we need to know reasons behind things?
Because it allows for proper prioritization of needs, allows for the better exploitation of our surroundings (as tool using animals), and is INCREDIBLY useful for helping us try to “model” other human’s behaviors and act as social animals as opposed to just being the regular kind.
Probably the most impact “Why” question probably started occurring before we were even human and it was “Why did they do that?”
Being able to understand the motivations of other beings is absolutely fucking incredibly overpowered both in terms of cooperative action with your fellows AND destructive action against foes/food sources.