The Question Quadrant is a method used to identify philosophical questions, distinguishing them from other kinds of questions.

For example, if we were asking questions about this cartoon, from Punch, 1910:

Source: 
“Excelsior!” Punch (13 Jul 1910): 21.

We might ask the following kinds of questions:

Phillip Cam proposed that we can then split these kinds of questions into different categories:

Textual Questions — closed — these are questions that can be answered through looking at the text given.

Textual Questions — open — these are open for literary speculation, we can have many possibilities as to what the answer is.

Intellectual Questions — closed — these are questions that we can we can read further to find out, or do more research involving the text to find the answer.

Intellectual Questions — open — these are questions that are broader — we evaluate our reasons for the answer, examine the concepts further, and will have to discuss, maybe disagree, and engage intellectually to come up with answers.

A closed question has a settled answer, whereas an open question can have more possibilities. Have a look at the questions I’ve suggested for the cartoon and identify which quadrant they come from — and come up with a few of your own.