There Are No Dumb Questions...

The common saying is that there are no dumb or stupid questions. I disagree with that. I think there are several dumb questions. For example:

1 A question where the answer is already known and it is not being used as a teaching tool or as a self-reflection exercise.
2 A question where the person asking don't really want to know the answer.
3 A question that is intended to incite confusion or contention or to be annoying. This could include asking a question where the person asked does not know the answer and it is known by the person asking that they cannot get the answer.
4 A question that is manipulative or forceful, attempting to coerce a person into giving an answer that they do not believe or would regret.
5 A question intended to show intellectual superiority or power over another person.
6 A leading question could go one way or the other. It would be a dumb question if it is based on faulty logic, or if the implied answer is wrong. As an example, in a previous blog post I mentioned a leading question that is not inherently dumb but given the context it became a dumb question.

Some questions fit into multiple categories making them especially dumb. There are ways to ask questions that make a person look less intelligent but that doesn't make the question itself a dumb one.

Please comment if you think of a type of question that does not fit into any of these categories.