Pre-ToK Assignment 1 - Response by Xiang Ding

"In Chapter 2, Albert Knox states that "It seems as 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 (pp. 1-120) and your own life experiences."

In Chapter 2, Mr. Knox is trying to tell Sophie that as we grow up, we become more accustomed to the things around us to the extent that we will no longer wonder about everyday trivialities. Mr. Knox solidifies his point by saying that adults live a world overwhelmed by habit. Grown-ups, he claims, are unwilling to change their habits and shy to question the world. To this extent, I agree with our fictional philosopher.

The average working adult lives each day by going to the same place to work, waking up and eating at a fixed time, and going home to the same apartment every night. Eventually becoming so familiar with our lives, we push these activities to the subconscious parts of our mind. Using a table tennis analogy; if an experienced table tennis player sees a ping-pong ball flying at him, he would immediately raise his racket to block the ball. This action he does on impulse. He does not later think about why he hit the ball or why he ball would bounce back if it touches his racket. He knows it from experience. On the contrary, a child playing table tennis would see the ball flying at him but might try to deflect it with his hand, or with his racket but in the wrong direction. Later on, he would describe the bounce to be mystifying and something new. And from this we can see the difference between how a child and an adult treats the same activity so differently. The fact that children see this world around us in a different light is what Mr. Knox and I both believe.

What I don't agree with him about are the reasons behind why adults think less about the world. Mr. Knox suggests it is because of habit and becoming used to repeating the same actions over and over again. I'm sure this is true to a certain extent; however, I do not believe it to be the primary reason. The main reason why adults 'wonder' less about the world is because we know a lot more than what children know. This is what I believe to be a fundamental flaw in Mr. Knox's philosophy. He explains that because a child is impressed with seeing a dog in the street and adults are not, children wonder more about the world. Sure, perhaps this is true. They, being exposed to a whole new environment would of course be more amazed. However, their abilities to wonder are limited. Scientific knowledge tells us that a baby's cognitive brain functions are much undeveloped compared to that of an adult. Their faculty of wonder is, therefore, less powerful than an adult with a fully developed thinking organ.

Let us go back to the example used in the book about the dog. The child might say "bow-wow" and think: I have never seen this before. Its moving! But give a similarly new object or animal to an adult and they may start to analyse its gender, its weight, its eating habits and its life-span. These things a baby would not have wondered about. What our example here tells us is that Mr. Knox is making his statement based on a false premise. Though a baby thinks more about the world, an adult certainly thinks more deeply. And since the faculty of wonder or the ability to wonder is not measured by how much we wonder but by well we wonder, it is perhaps more correct in saying that "in the process of growing up we gain the ability to wonder about the world."

From a different view, let us consider education. Education is now something almost every child is given. In school, we are asked to question the world, and our questions are answered by teachers. Our questions are split into different subjects - answers to numerical questions we learn in mathematics; answers to literary questions we learn in English; and answers to scientific questions we learn in Science. Does the fact that we are spurred on to take these rigid courses by our parents not suggest that society demands we have questioned about the world? In fact, society views this as very important. A child's future is determined by how well he learns in school and how quickly he wonders about the world. As we continue to higher education, a much more sophisticated faculty of wonder is demanded. This is evidence again to suggest that our ability to wonder increases with age. We see that looking at the statement from a slightly different perspective still yields the same conclusion.

Xiang Ding

P.S. Who is Albert Knox? Where did he come from? Who is he to be giving anonymous courses in philosophy to a vulnerable girl? He could be a child kidnapper as much as he could be a grand philosopher. Theory of Knowledge demands that we question the information we are given, and from a certain point of view, Mr. Knox's credibility can be seriously questioned.