In his letters, Albert Knox writes about how being a philosopher requires an inquiring mind and that all you need is the faculty of wonder. The ability to question anything and everything in search for answers. He writes that the moment we are born we are filled with wonder about the world we have come into, "reaching out in curiosity to everything it sees". He gives an example of how men in different situations need different things but when their needs have been satisfied he asks "Will there still be something that everyone needs?". That need, he says, is "to figure out who we are and why we are here."
However Knox goes on to explaining why adults lack this faculty of wonder, the burning curiosity to search for answers, to wonder about life and its mysteries. He writes that it is because they have gotten used to life, the world has become routine to them. They believe they have found what is right and wrong, what is and isn't possible, and they continue through life with their eyes closed, never again seeing how extraordinary and mysterious the world is. At the end of his second letter he writes that "somewhere inside ourselves, something tells us that life is a huge mystery". He finishes of by stating that we have all experienced this before, "long before we learned to think the thought", but have grown up, the world now a habit.
I find myself agreeing to his statement. I too believe that as we grow older we lose our sense of curiosity, focusing on now. Unless we are prompted by questions about life, we forget the many questions we have and only realize again when we are too old to do anything about them. I like to think that I'm still there, at the tip of the fur, questioning my existence. I often ask myself why do we live if we are to eventually die in the end, probably never realizing that we existed. Do -you- ask yourself such things? Questions with answers you will probably never discover? I hope that I do not forget that life is a huge mystery, the world becoming a habit, eventually just living in the daily humdrum of existence.
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3 comments:
Josh Manuncia?
You've pretty much said everything there is to say about the general idea of the chapter. Unless i answer your questions or just comment about them, i dont have anything else to provide that isn't "new". I wouldn't be able to have my response to your blog as my blog as it wouldnt be answering the assignment. Honestly if you are Josh Manuncia, i never knew you could write like this, and i'd laugh at myself if you weren't. Perhaps you are Mr. Jabal posting a response as an example for us other ToK students.
I can't take any credit for Josh's posting -- it's his and his alone.
As you are you -- and the only one of you -- you no doubt have your own equally valid perspective to contribute to the forum on this first assignment prompt. Please do so.
A very perceptive posting Josh - am impressed. Feel free to wonder (not wander!) all you like in my English classes! On a serious note, you state that 'wondering' generally happens when you are a child or 'too old to do anything about it'. I'd like more explanation on what you mean by this. Does old age automatically mean you will challenge the world around you, question your place in the universe & wonder about your own mortality and, if so, why?
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