THE 2 TYPES OF QUESTIONS Do or not do? (kidding) When you think about it, there are really only two types of questions: "Is X a Y?" and "What Xs are Ys?" The former makes for very easy logical deduction - good for computers and proofs. They take a very top-down approach, where they start with many premises and deduct the final answer. The latter is an open question, that must be built on. It's the opposite of the former; these types of questions build from the bottom-up. They start with many answers and you build up to form where the answers go. In other words, the terms Extensional and Intensional further manifest: "Is X a Y?" are extensional questions - giving examples of hard facts; "What Xs are Ys?" are intensional questions - explaining the properties of something. It seems very important to be able to have the power to travel both ways in finding an answer, traveling the problem space in the most effective manner.