Veronica asked:

What is the first philosophical question?

and Rachelle asked:

My professor asked me to find the first philosophical question.

and Warwin asked:

Why is, "Who am I?" the first philosophical question?

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What do you think your teacher was trying to do when he/she asked you this question? I'm sure
he/she didn't want a factual answer, if such a thing could be found — how would you go about
discovering what the historically first philosophical question was? Well, first of all you'd need to know
what a philosophical question is. And I think that's the point of your teacher's question. He/she wants
you to think about how philosophical inquiry might begin.

So, what is a philosophical question? They are usually very general questions about some basic
aspect of reality and our existence. Why does anything exist at all? Is there a god? Who am I? Just
look at the questions asked (and answers) on this site, and you'll know what a philosophical question
is.

Then, think about how people could have begun asking such questions. Philosophy is about wonder,
so what do you find most puzzling about the world? The first philosophical question is where
philosophy begins for you, before you have studied any philosophy.

And you might also have a look at writings by presocratic philosophers, to see what kinds of
questions the people who were the first (at least in the West) to start thinking about these things had.
Are they similar to the questions you have? Why or why not?

Berta Black

The notion that there has to be a first philosophical question suggests that knowledge and
understanding must be built up systematically from a foundation of certainty. For Descartes this was
certainty about our own existence. The cogito ergo sum (I am thinking, therefore I am) argument was
supposed to prove that as long as I am thinking I can be certain of my own existence. The problem
then was to move from this private certainty about my own mental experience to certainty about the
external world outside my mind. So, Descartes' question was not "Who am I?" but "What can I know
for certain?" The "I" there was defined as a thinking thing.

If we take a reversed perspective, and assume the existence of the external world, the question
becomes "How do I know what I think?" This is because the assumption that I have a certain and
privileged access to my own mind, falters when we consider that our thoughts are at least partly
individuated by the facts about the objects they refer to, i.e. facts in the external world. If we don't
know enough about the facts to be able to distinguish between one object and another, or between
one substance and another, then we could be having identical psychological experiences whilst
having what must be two different thoughts or beliefs, whose truth conditions are bound to be
different. The relationship between the propositions that express the thoughts or beliefs and the
private mental experience is in question. In could be that what we mean by our mind is at least
partially determined by facts about the external world. Therefore, the question "How do I know what I
think" is very relevant.

Whatever we decide, it seems to me that the questions about the possibility of self-knowledge have to
precede the question "Who am I?" because I might not be able to answer that if my self-knowledge is
unreliable.

Graham Nutbrown

Plainly the first philosophical question is the first one you're asking. This would be your individual first
philosophical question.

Historically it seems as if the ancient Greek philosophers started all philosophy by asking "What is the
origin (Greek: arche) of all?", or as Nietzsche put it in his Philosophy During the Tragic Age of the
Greeks:"Greek philosophy seems to begin with a preposterous idea, with the proposition that water is
the origin and mother-womb of all things".

More interesting than the chronological aspect of this "first question" is its qualitative one.

If there is any justifiable "first philosophical question" in this respect, then I think we can agree with
Heidegger to term the question "Why is there something rather than nothing?", originally recorded
(surely being asked much earlier) by Leibniz as the fundamental and widest possible question of
philosophy (An introduction to Metaphysics,1). It is the core of the branch of philosophy called
ontology, or the study of existence and existence is undoubtedly the precondition for anything else,
including asking questions.

Simone Klein

www.sophiasworld.at

Wow, guys, that's some professor you've got. Now, myfirst question is, why should I do your
homework for you? My next question is, what does "first" mean? First in time, in importance, in
interest, in profundity? Next, how does anyone know what the "first" question is? Did someone write
them all down in order, 2000 years ago? Or was there an opinion poll of philosophers? And why
should we believe anyone who says they know what the first question is, or was, or will be? Or should
be?

Steven Ravett Brown