In my opinion the quote by Albert Knox "It seems as if in the process of growing up we lose the ability to wonder about the world" implies that as time passes by and as we humans gain more experience and knowledge, we seem to assume we know the world, and began to lose curiousity at it. As children have not seen the world as much as grown ups, they have a wilder imagination of the world and accepts anything that comes in the way, even if it's "abnormal" to grown ups. Once grown up, we take the world as "a matter of course", and do not expect anything unusual to happen. Moreover as grown ups, we are more interested in our own personal life than to go exploring the existance of the world.
I agree with Albert Knox with the quote, however at the same time I feel like arguing against it. I myself do not know how the "wondering" can be lost, but I can accept the fact that other people may stop questioning about the world. For the majority of the time it depends a great deal on the personality of the person for them to “lose the ability to wonder”. In most cases grown ups lose their curiousity by acting mature and focus on reality or whatever their eyes can see. They also believe wondering about the world is a waste of time, and would rather "live for the day".
However there are some certain people who does not take the world for granted, but wants to understand it more, wonder about it more, and realizes each one of us actually "knows nothing about the world". One of them is Plato (or Aristotle .. i can't find the section...), an example from the book. He is a grown up, but just is curious about the world as much as a child. Unlike most of the other grown ups, he strived to comprehend the world to its full limits. He as an example is the total opposite of Albert Knox's quote. The more he grows, the more he wonders. Other philosophers are just as contradicting the quote as much as Plato. "The only thing we require to be good philosophers is the faculty of wonder" explains it. They wonder, wonder and wonder as time passes. There are also people, like Sophie from the book, whose perspective of life is changed on the verge of falling into the "take for granted" world. Now that her life is touched by the philosopher teacher, she will be trying to grasp more imagination and wondering to understand the world.
3 comments:
some people may not care about the world, and take the world for granted but at the same time this does not mean they have lost the ability to wonder about the world. Though certain groups of people may not want to wonder about the world and just take the world for granted, do you not think that maybe for every single adult there would be a time when a stimulus would make them wonder about the world again, for example death itself..? I do not think onewould stop questioning about the world, they just choose not to. Maybe they just don't say it out.. I just don't think there is people in this world that don't question about the world even if they are old!
I agree with clara with how people just don't lose their ability to wonder when they grow old. Certainly they won't wonder all the time or just randomly stare in to space lost in thought, but once in a while they might think about their own existence and the matters of life and death. Wouldn't you be lost in thought about the world and life once in a while?
To Clara: I have to agree with you on the death thing and some groups of people just choose not to think about the world. However there have to be someone who does not have time or does not care about the world. Those are exceptions, and those are the ones i was talking about in my essay.
To Sophie: I said other people. i didnt say me.
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