I think most people prefer to avoid the big questions, the vast questions, as what's the point. They are not going to answer them so they prefer then to not even think about it. Questions like how to live a happy life, as is discussed in this post , seem pointless. I wanted here to to try explain why I think it is important to constantly ask and think about such questions, and also the unique opportunity that a site such as this offers in discussing such questions.

"A journey of a 1000 miles begins with a single step" so says the famous proverb. One starts building, starts digging, or whatever other metaphor you want. Little by little things advance and you understand a bit more on the subject. Did you solve it, well no, but you have a better idea what you're up against and how to handle it. The old sense of philosophy used to be to prepare you towards death - it's not that you can stop it, but it gets you ready to confront it. In some ways it is useless, you are going to die, but on the other hand it prepares you to better handle it. Now we don't need to get grim and talk of death, but any big thing in life needs some preparedness. This is why you are sent to school no, to the university - to prepare you for life. One can prefer the school of the streets to the university, but it's still a certain kind of school, of an on-the-job training.

Now, you can say that it's easier when starting a long journey to look constantly at the city near by, and just think of getting there, and little by little you'll advance. But people doing that rarely get very far but get stuck pretty soon.

Let us take as an example the question why do people speak? It is a vast question but is worth asking. A question such as why do people like to teach as discussed in this post is a limited version of this question to help start thinking. But people all the time speak, and besides to get specific things done, it is a need. I mean speaking also in the sense of writing, for instance, writing a book, or an email to someone, or even poking someone. Why does this need exist? It is a vast question, but still, a question which is haunting me for years and years as understanding it, or even a small part of it, explains so much of the world to us. Even understanding a very small part already reveals so much that we experience life completely differently.

Now to this site - while confronting these questions oneself is daunting, having a large group of people confronting them together ,each person not answering much but just a tiny bit, and with some important repetitions of people, one can very quickly advance so much more. I think the possibility in this site, or one of them, is precisely the partial answer. Not thinking about something for a decade before uttering a phrase, but maybe saying something very partial but which reveals a bit.
It is the difference between digging a well yourself, or a huge group of people. Obviously the group can arrive much faster to much deeper.
A group though, being a group, is much less precise in where it is going, and the one person, though slow, might be more precise. These are not contradictory but complimentary activities - working together and using the group movement for a personal discovery. This is how science advances.
While a common discussion on such topics stayed with a small group of people, usually quite like-minded, for instance academic, such a site offers a much wider range of possibilities and opinions, and with it, the possibility of a common research to new depths.
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