For this question, try your best not to say both. Look at it from different perspectives (if you can), and try to think about any solution that doesn't regard the answer both. 

This question really intrigued me. I do not know the history of the staircase, so I am unsure of what the original purpose was meant to be, whether it was to go up, or help people go down. I would think it was meant to go up...ramps are usually easier to build, and could have helped people down in the first place (of course, the ramps have to be long...if they were too steep, it would be hard to go up). 

I guess I feel that common sense and logic should be used for this question more than anything, unless you do know the original intent of what stairs are supposed to be used for, but that doesn't mean that the purpose could not have altered between then and now. 

What do you guys think?

It seems to have been a popular question on the internet, and probably is still now. 

Good question . Do they go up or down ? Well the question is simple . If you are standing at the bottom then they go up . If you are standing at the top then they go down . I am not sure if that is the correct answer but that is the best I have gotten  

Stairs don't go anywhere there an inanimate object. So, the question then reverts to "Do you go up or down a flight of stairs?" The answer to this question depends on the potential users point of view.

Sorry, if this was too literal of an answer but it was the first thing that popped into my mind.  

Stairs go both up and down. But that's not my final answer.

See, stairs were meant to go up. Everything is, in technical terms, on ground zero, meaning they're as low as you can go without smashing through the natural floor. Humans didn't use to stand in the air, and created stairs to go down. They were on ground zero, as I'll call it. They needed more volume for buildings without covering too much area. Well, they built up. Well, how are they supposed to get from ground zero to ground one? Build stairs!

Sorry if I'm being too technical. My point is that stairs were for going up, not down. But to answer your question, it's both.

Phantom stole my answer.
Arrest he!
Yeh, it is as you see it. If you go up they ascend. If you go down they descend

edit by Juliet - double post

I think stairs were invented to solve the problem of fighting gravity(and to make everyone else in the village with just ladders jealous), if you want to go down all you have to do is fall, no stairs needed.

I say up. You need stairs to go up, but gravity can bring you down. Stairs were probably originally for going up, and I think that a latter is probably the same.

I would think that stairs was meant 2 go down. If you are building something you have 2 build it from the ground up right? So i think that it would make sense that the original intention of the stairs was so that people could go down from the higher floors once they had climbed up ladder. It wasn't until the stairs was built that they realized that they had no need for the ladder any more. People back in the day was pretty dumb. lol
But then again i could be wrong. That is just my theory on the subject.?

It depends on your perspective. If you are at the top of the stairs, then the stairs appear to go down. So then, if you are standing at the bottom of the stairs, they appear to go up. If you just want one single answer, then I would say up because that is the way that they are built.

I think stairs go up not down . I think they were meant to be used to get up things not down things. Or maybe they were meant to do both
But it also depends on how you look at it.

i think stairs go up because you bulid them going up and not down so yeah i think it is funny thread but a good one i use stairs to go up because my friend lives on the second floor but if it goes down i think that their is no way to build it. and wow i dont know what i am saying this is pretty confusing but i would think that they were meant to go up so yeah

It's depends on your point of view, but now I normally look at it, if it's stairs that leads to floors above the ground floor (a.k.a. 1st floor) then it's going up, but if it's stairs going to floors below ground level, then it's going down.

Stairs do not go up or down. They are an inanimate object humans use to climb. The humans are the ones going up and down; That's what stairs are used for. lol

Do stairs go up or down?, not the worst question I've seen be asked but it could be answered with a little common sense, stairs go both up and down. (ahh the pointless threads made during the TDV's)

It depends on what end of the stairs you're standing at. If you're at the top of them they appear to go down, but at the bottom they go up. They can go either way, so I'm not really sure what else to say about them.

Me personally, I think they go up. If you take the time and think how many times you go up or down some stairs, a lot of people mostly go up. Not all, but most of them.