It’s not our faculty of wonder that diminishes but the necessity and availability of things to wonder about

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.

Wonder – to have a feeling of curiosity or doubt.

By relating certain circumstances along with examples from ‘Sophie’s World’, I have come to the point where I can self-assuredly say, that I agree to the statement ‘It seems if in the process of growing up, we lose the ability to wonder about the world.’ It just seems like we are since our curiosity on certain things are pushed back in our minds. We think about these questions unconsciously which constantly come back during our spare moments, making every doable appearance.

As a philosophy teacher, he advises that the faculty of wonder is the key to being a successful philosopher and that everyone is born naturally with ‘this faculty’ and an inquiring mind as they are ‘slipping out to the reality.’ We tend to think about more things because we comprehend the basics and yearn to discover more complicated concerns. Instead, as we age, the faculty of wonder increases.

As we grow up, the world is examined further. The obvious factors such as identifying a dog as a dog instead of ‘bow-wow’ are learnt therefore it is harder to conjecture about things that are intangible and indefinite. For the obvious questions that we have already found out the answer to, we do not wonder. We just use our previous experiences to explain the current ones.

So, do adults really lose the faculty of wonder? No. They do not. Each and every day, they get used to more things they have done before and follow a simple routine. As we age, there is less to explore so it ‘seems’ we wonder less but this really is not the case. All adults seem to know what is right or wrong and lives by the social norms. As they are more focused on other major issues such as occupation and family, questioning about the unknown becomes a less of a concern to them, as shown through Sophie’s mom when she dissipates Sophie’s faculty of wonder by questioning her back. At the age of 5, I questioned why my granny wore glasses, once I understood why and was exposed to myself; I have lost my interest in wondering about it. Contrastingly, I asked where the universe come from and received a ‘I don't know’ as a response, so up till now, I still wonder about this matter but is not as concerned since it is not life threatening and there are other factors which are prioritized in my life. Seeing that we will ‘never get to the bottom’ of unanswerable questions, even though there might ‘be a solution elsewhere’, and that historical philosophers are not providing us with satisfactory answers, we tend to ‘crawl deeper down the rabbits fur’ as we get older.

Carrying on, priorities play a major role, we tend to focus on what is imminent, for example blogging this instead of sitting in the room and staring at blank space- wondering. As we grow up and get more preoccupied, less time is left to ponder such issues. Thus, the necessity to wonder is not as great/ important in comparison to other life matters. Once no answer is given, interest is lost and the desire to question diminishes. Once an answer is given, either through science or pure theory, the desire to question also diminishes. Both ways, the desire diminishes. Our wonder craves about eternally debatable topics such as the universe is pushed back to our unconscious minds and reappears only when raised.

‘What would you think’ if you have seen a Martian climbing out from a spaceship? Would you think of yourself a Martian. The main reason as to why we wonder about this is because we do not know whether Martians exist. Furthermore, other humans are exposed to as one of us therefore we do not wonder about them. Expanding from that point, we only think about the questions when we are asked, prompted and exposed to such as ‘what is the most important thing in life.’ Such as this assignment, we do not wonder if our ability to wonder is seemingly diminishing in our ordinary life because it does not concern us as much. From my own experience, I have only started to wonder about afterlife when I have seen death. Reluctant to do so, it seems like it is necessary to. Since we already know what is in laid before us, and is adequate to guide our way to success, it is not essential to wonder about redundant things which will not aid us in our normal ordinary lives but acts as an obstruction instead.

I disagree to point raised earlier by another student that the ‘future is unknown therefore there is no point in wondering about it.’ Yes, the future is unknown and THAT is why we still wonder about it. As defined above, we wonder only when we don't know or in doubt of something, therefore if the future is known then there really is no point in wondering about it.

Another dilemma as to why we ‘seem’ to lose our ability to wonder is due to the fact that some people are drawn away from these themes as they are frightened by the unknown. Most people would not want to think about anything philosophical, knowing that they would be petrified by knowing the unknown.

To bring to a close, the ability to wonder ‘seems’ to be lost as we age but it is not. It simply changes through time, gets pressed back in our minds and increases gradually unconsciously. Unlike children and philosophers, any adult would rather ‘crawl deep into the rabbit’s fur…snuggle…comfortably’ and ‘stay for there for the rest of their lives’ than to explore and ‘wonder’ more about the world fearing that they would not get the answer at all, the way they wanted it to be or how severely it would interfere with their lives. Prioritizations come into place and ‘seemingly’ diminish our ability to wonder. So finally it is not our faculty of wonder that diminishes but the necessity and availability of things to wonder about.