But "how" was not a starting question of the interviewer. The questions were different, and I've marked them with numbers here:
https://www.lesswrong.com/posts/W9rJv26sxs4g2B9bL/transcript...
"Interviewer: If you get hold of two magnets, and you push them, you can feel this pushing between them. Turn them around the other way, and they slam together. <q1> Now, what is it, the feeling between those two magnets? </q1>
Feynman: What do you mean, "What's the feeling between the two magnets?"
Interviewer: <q2> There's something there, isn't there? </q2> The sensation is that there's something there when you push these two magnets together.
Feynman: Listen to my question. What is the meaning when you say that there's a feeling? Of course you feel it. Now what do you want to know?
Interviewer: What I want to know is <q3>what's going on between these two bits of metal </q3>?
Feynman: They repel each other.
Interviewer: <q4> What does that mean, or why are they doing that, or how are they doing that? </q4> I think that's a perfectly reasonable question.
Feynman: Of course, it's an excellent question. But the problem, you see, when you ask why something happens, how does a person answer why something happens? For example, Aunt Minnie is in the hospital. Why? Because she went out, slipped on the ice, and broke her hip. That satisfies people. It satisfies, but it wouldn't satisfy someone who came from another planet and who knew nothing about why when you break your hip do you go to the hospital. How do you get to the hospital when the hip is broken? Well, because her husband, seeing that her hip was broken, called the hospital up and sent somebody to get her. All that is understood by people. And when you explain a why, you have to be in some framework that you allow something to be true. Otherwise, you're perpetually asking why."
I think Feynman properly responded to the questions asked -- people do thing that they have to "find a meaning" and "why" and talk about "the feeling."
Feynman properly answers there "of course you feel it!"
Follow very carefully his whole response (I link the transcript) -- it's deeply thought through and applicable to much more than just "feeling -- meaning -- why -- magnets." It's about the "why questions" and "meaning" questions in general, from the view of physics.