"It seems as if in the process of growing up we lose the ability to wonder about the world."
Through this statement Albert Knox describes to us that when we grow up we lose the ability to wonder about the world. “The only thing we require to be good philosophers is the faculty of wonder” and babies have this faculty. After few months in the mother’s womb they slip out into a brand new world full of questions and curiosities. However as they grow up the faculty of wonder about the world seems to diminish. The only reason we are not enthralled by what we see is because long before we learn to talk or long before we learn to think philosophically – the world becomes a habit and we no longer are curious about the world. Most of us get so involved in our everyday affairs; our astonishment at the world gets pushed into the background.
When I first saw this world, I know as a baby I was curious, there must have been questions in my mind about what is this or why is this like that. When I learned to walk, I fell down many times, this was also a question for me to why I fell down but when I learned it, it became a habit. Now I fall, I am not curious of why I fell but I would just think that I trip but not that I wasn’t walking properly. As I result when I was born I was at the very tip of the rabbit’s fine hair but as I got older I dug my self deeper into the fur. However, there are times when I do jump to reach the tip of the rabbit’s fine hair because I do believe that somewhere inside ourselves, something tells us that life is a huge mystery and questions do arise like how did I come into this world or who was I before or what is my future? Such questions remain within us, we do grow up and lose the ability to wander but one thing is for sure that the faculty of wander is in us from the very beginning.
In the novel Sophie’s world, from the start, Sophie receives several letters with questions she has never come across before. She starts to think philosophically and starts to wander about the world. After reading a few chapters of this inspiring book, these philosophical questions do impel me to think this way too.
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3 comments:
To tell the truth, I am against Alex Knox's statement.
I surely agree with you that all babies do wonder alot about the world as we actually don't know alot of things and I actually have been a baby in the past! :)
however, I am not sure that as we are growing, we are actually loosing them. I still wonder about them and I am actually not showing it infront of people. Like I actually do in Math class; sometimes, I don't get to understand what I had learnt but if other people don't show any concerns on wanting to know it again then I automatically think that I shouldn't ask to the teacher. I just automatically think that it's embarrasing to ask in front of people. To fullfill my curiousness, I secretly study by myself to know what I didn't understand.
So I think, as we are growing up, we still get to wonder about things.
"When I first saw this world, I know as a baby I was curious, there must have been questions in my mind about what is this or why is this like that....Such questions remain within us, we do grow up and lose the ability to wander but one thing is for sure that the faculty of wander is in us from the very beginning."
You have a very interesting point of view, but I was curious to know if you thought that you were able to think philosophically from the point that you were brought into the world?
I, for one, know that as eager as I may have been to learn about the world at the age of 1, I probably wouldn't even think of questions like "How am I here", be it in English or in mumbled baby language.
What do you think?
By the way, the questions raised in the book led me to think about them as well. =) I really liked how you elaborated on your point of view.
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