Date: Wed, 18 Sep 1996 09:01:29 -0500

From: Tom Beckner TMBECKNER[AT SYMBOL GOES HERE]TAYLORU.EDU

Subject: Re: A new oxymoron?



As I see it, "uninformed question" is not and oxymoron if we accept the

definition of such as "contradictory or incongruous word combinations.

Not all questions are uninformed; indeed, the best questions probably

emerge from a good sense of the problem considered. Questions may serve

several functions in conversations (e.g. some may be rhetorical). And in

a court of law, there is an adage: "never ask a a witness any question to

which you don't already know the answer." Thus, not all questions come

from a condition where one is uninformed.