Deep Questions

It’s already April, and at Experience Writing that means it’s time for NaPoWriMo (National /Global Poetry Writing Month) and the A-Z Challenge. Continuing this year’s theme, I’m writing about the A to Z of Depth.

To learn anything, we need to ask questions. To reach a depth of understanding we need to ask a lot of questions. How do we come up with the questions to get to the deepest answers?

We can start by using the Deep Knowledge Worksheet from the Depth of Knowledge post to explore our subject as deeply as we can, and see what questions we still have. We could play the What If and What If Game from my Day 1 post on Abstract and Concrete Thinking. But then, how do we decide where to focus for further exploration?

Topoi

While reading Mindful Writing by Brian Jackson which I came across while writing the Depth Through Mindfulness post, I read about a system for creating arguments used by students of rhetoric in ancient Greece. Topoi (plural of topos meaning place) are questions to contemplate when trying to find where to start your argument.

Topos	Related Questions
Definition, category, or essence	What is this thing? How is it defined? How is it classified (with other things? How does this thing work? What is its purpose?
division	How can this topic be divided? What are its parts? How do the parts relate? Which parts are most important?
comparison	What is this thing like? What is it not like? What analogies or metaphors could be used to compare this to other things?
cause or consequence	What happens because of this thing? What are the consequences of it? Who or what is influenced by it?
antecedent or origin	Where did this thing come from? Who started it? What is its history? What is it a consequence of?
authority	Who speaks about this? Who are the experts or stakeholders? Who knows the most about this? Who cares about this?
value	Who values this thing? Is it good or bad? How is this thing evaluated? What laws, morals or practices are influenced by this? What’s the consensus on it? The disagreements?
space	Where is this thing? What is its reach, scope? Where is it concentrated? How far does it go?
possibility	What’s possible related to this thing? How much can it change? Who has power to change it? What’s difficult or impossible about this?

We can choose to focus our argument (or exploration) in one topos, or explore several topoi to deepen our argument.

Topoi led me to an amazing website called Excellence Cluster Topoi (2007-2019). This website stopped updating in 2019, but it is so full of interesting information, I don’t think I’ll ever run out of reasons to visit it. This site was part of a world-wide network of ancient studies. Reading it is like stepping into a section of the Noosphere.

Just one Edition Topoi titled Space and Knowledge has downloadable articles I can’t wait to read like:

The Textile Revolution. Research into the Origin and Spread of Wool Production between the Near East and Central Europe

The Trialectics of Knowledge, Space and Identity in Ancient Civilizations and in the Study of Antiquity

Representing Authority in Ancient Knowledge Texts

The Meaning of Ancient Words for ‘Earth’: An Exercise in Visualizing Colexification on a Semantic Map _{(Depth Grammar anyone? 🙂)}

Spatial Metaphors of the Ancient World: Theory and Practic

and so much more.

In the Exhibitions section I found The Soul is an Octopus an exhibition in Berlin in 2016 where Topoi researchers “presented their ongoing research on ancient conceptions of the interaction between body and soul and attempts at localization of the soul within the human body.”

“The exhibition introduced three important questions that were central to classical philosophers and physicians alike:”

• What is the ruling part of the soul?
• Where does it reside?
• How does it communicate with the body?

Now those are some deep questions.

Forming a Hypothesis

Another way to focus on what questions to ask is to start with a hypothesis. A hypothesis is an assumption or idea proposed for the sake of argument so that it can be tested to see if it is true. For today’s post my hypothesis is: Asking the right questions will lead to depth.

How would I start to explore that hypothesis? I would have to start by defining my variables (the parts that are most likely to change). In an experiment, we want to keep all the variables constant except for one, the one we want to evaluate. What do I mean by right questions? What do I mean by depth? How do I measure the rightness of a question? How do I measure depth?

I can revisit the depth scale I created for our Artist Date Drawing Depth Data to measure depth. To find the “right” questions, I can generate questions and observe if answering them gets me to the lowest rungs of my depth scale. A “right” question would be a question that measures Deep Dive or lower with the goal of generating questions that reach Sea Floor. I will need to redefine my levels slightly:
Deep Dive: The question leads to further exploration of the subject using multiple sources.
Scuba: The question leads to finding unanswerable questions: Areas where both sides of an argument could be right.
Submarine: The question leads to personal discoveries that can be applied to further exploration.
Sea floor: The question leads to epiphanies, real change in thinking, and/ or recognizing new truths in the world.

Do you have an hypothesis about depth? I would love to read it in the comments.

This sounds like a fun and worthwhile experiment. I’ll work on it for the rest of the month and if I get to some worthwhile conclusions, I’ll share them in my reflections post at the end.

Today’s Poem

* Content Warning: domestic abuse

The Crime of Dirty Counters

Every time I wipe down my counters
I think of the man who said he
would get so angry at his wife
because she didn’t wipe down the counters.

I don’t remember where I encountered him
If he was fact or fiction, but he’s stuck
in my head. And I always wonder
why didn’t he wipe down the counters
himself?

I imagine him coming home
seeing splatters of oil
hissed from a pan
a tiny floret of broccoli
some pepper and salt
and he sits fuming in his seat
at the head of the table
as she serves him his
braised beef and sauteed
vegetables that he won’t
even taste because all he
can think about is how
she neglects his kitchen
counters. She yammers on
about her day, but he doesn’t hear.
He sees broccoli florets
in her teeth and on her tongue
and his anger grows. He tells her
he has work to do and retires
to his den, so he won’t
slap her filthy face, again.

I imagine him dripping
honey on the counter
to test how long it takes
her to wipe it off. Noticing
every speck that sticks
to it. Counting each minute
as a personal affront.

I think how livid
he would be, seeing me
wipe my counter with
this coffee-stained sponge.
How he would hate me
because these old, grooved
yellowish seventies counters
can never get clean enough.

Then I think about after:
after the rage was too much
and he couldn’t go on
living this way, and the
little specks and florets
were all he could see
so he did something
about it and put her
where old, dirty sponges
belong, who wiped
down his counters then?
Counters don’t stay
clean for long.

This poem was inspired by today’s prompts at NaPoWriMo and Writer’s Digest’s April Poem a Day (PAD) Challenge.

Thank you so much for coming by and reading my post. Any thoughts or questions? Come back tomorrow for more depth exploration and poetry.