In chapter 2, Albert Knox states that “It seems if in the process of growing up, we lose the ability to wonder about the world”. What does he mean? Do you agree with him? Explain why or why not using examples from this first section of the novel P1-120 and your own life experiences.
After reading the first few chapters of the book, "Sophie's World", I myself started to think much more about what life is about. The quote; "It seems if in the process of growing up, we lose the ability to wonder about the world", makes me wonder if that really happens. The quote points out a really debatable point and of course there is no right or wrong answer in this situation.
After thinking about it over and over again I would have to say I only agree with Albert Knox, the philosopher that is teaching Sophie to a certain extent. This is because in my opinion, I think as we grow older, the things that we wonder about vary from the things that we wonder when we were young. Even if we are at the age of 65 we would still wonder about things, it may be things that we have then when we were young or it maybe things that you have experienced no matter it happy or sad. You may wonder why you didn't try harder for certain things, wonder why you are where you are now and you may even wonder why you wonder. After a period of time you may start to get tired of all the questions that you have in your mind and you eventually just accept how everything is around you. All I am saying is that it is possible to stop wondering about one thing, but there will always be new things that you will start wondering about. For example, one day you see a huge mansion built opposite your own and you automatically wonder who in the world was as rich as you to own a mansion in your estate, and let's just say you have never gotten a chance to see who the owner of the mansion was. After a period of time you will just not bother wondering who the owner is and just accept the fact that some random stranger owns the mansion. However when another mansion is built nearby, you will start wondering about that mansion instead.
I partially agree to Albert's quote because people with a younger age wonder a lot more than people that are with an older age. This maybe because as people grow through time, they experience more things and they will eventually stop wondering about the things that they have experienced, basically saying there will be less things for them to wonder about. Furthermore, when we enter adulthood we are more preoccupied with things such as work, marriage and future planning (planning for retirement etc).
It is only natural for people to seek for answers, answers that will answer their queston. But not every question comes with an answer. Some questions may take only a few seconds, minutes, days, months or even years to answer but some may not be answered even if you lived through a life.
This statement/quote that Albert Knox has made can be looked upon in many different ways. I can only agree with him to a certain extent but that is not to say he is wrong. Not everyone thinks the same, everyone has their own opinion. Nowadays people are absorbing more knowledge than they are before, everyone has a thirst of MORE knowledge than before, everyone wants to be recognized, it is how the world is now. Some may wonder why need the recognition? why bother with ToK? why bother reading Sophies World? Some answers are better left for people to wonder for than for them to be answered.
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2 comments:
I found it interesting that in your first paragraph you pointed out just how thought provoking the book is. It was a simple statement but I think it was very relevant to everyone who has read the book.
When I wrote my blog, I did not contemplate that adults and children might “wonder” about different things. We may wonder in the equal amounts but about separate ideas. However, when we are younger there is more to wonder about but as we grow up we think more technically and take into account facts we already know.
I was also interested that you brought up that people might just tire of questioning and simply accept the unknown as it is easier then constantly questionning.
Continuing with Anna's comment, I would like to say that I also did not address the fact that children wonder different things compared to adults. Perhaps Knox stated that "it seems as if in the process of growing up we lose the ablilty to wonder about the world" to mean that adults do not wonder about the world anymore unlike children. But not meaning that the ablity to wonder has disappeared, only they do not wonder about the world and still wonder about other things such as social issues.
I am not sure if this is making sense, if you understand this please try to explain it better.
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