Albert Knox explains that as humans grow up; their curiosity of the world gradually disappears. People especially adults will take the world as it is and seldom wonder about the reason/cause and how the world came about. He says that all of us are born with the ‘faculty of wonder’ having the inborn ability to wonder but once aged, we take the world as granted and as ‘a matter of course’. There is truth in his statement, yet, I can only agree to a certain extent.
It is true that people do seem to wonder less about the world as they grow up. It is natural since they get distracted by different things in every day life. However, it is not that we lose the ‘ability’ to wonder about things. People just do not pause and wonder about the world but engage in daily activities of living. As a child, we may be very curious to our surroundings, the physical existence of the world and perhaps wonder why objects such as buildings, streets, people etc are there. However, once we grow up, these questions we once had become a less of concern to us. Our focus is put elsewhere since our experiences, interaction with people and the environment, what we learn from others provide us with new inspirations to ponder about. Our interests lie in different scopes. For example, an adult may be more interested about how to live a better life, how to get a new job, planning for building a family. Questions as to why we are here why does the world existed are secondary to them. Therefore, it is just that we do not wonder about the world, and not losing the ability to wonder about it.
This is evident when we see how Sophie ‘for the first time in her life...felt it wasn’t right to live in the world without at least inquiring where it came from’. She begins to think philosophically when given a number of questions to answer and before understanding the philosophy behind it. Sophie never had thought about those questions before in the beginning of the novel. This shows that people can converse about the questions we once had but not purposefully doing so in our daily lives.
It is correct to say that we wonder less about the world as we grow up however it cannot be said that we ‘lose the ability’ to do so. Our focus is just diverted to other aspects of life that we reckon are more important.
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6 comments:
Am v. impressed with the promptness of your response! I agree that ordinary life does get in the way of wondering about the 'big stuff'. Do you think it is right (or even simply understandable) that we let the 'life, universe & everything' questions become secondary behind the immediate concerns of our everyday existence?
Hey Tou,
Your words echo my thoughts. Never in our process of growing up do we lose our ability to wonder about the world. In fact, it is inevitable that our thinking ability will increase with age. Therefore, as we grow older, we increase our ability, or, to put it in other words, our potential, to wonder about the world.
Old philosophers are an excellent counterpoint to the thesis in discussion, for they are the masters at wondering about the world. Perhaps though, it is in the nature of a book on the history of philosophy to start with such a contentious claim. I will be discussing more and blogging my own comment on Saturday, as I have yet to start the book.
Xiang Ding
is there such a thing as a "master at wondering about the world"?
I agree with some things you said too. Especially with a lot of Hong Kongers these days, people simply don't have the time to "question", and have to concentrate on their jobs and families.
I agree with you HT! Now thinking about it, we don't lose the ablity we just use it less. However, I don't think that Knox ment lose as in physically lost. I think he ment that we do not use it because wonderment can never be lost.
I agree with your view on how we just simply 'wonder less' about the world as we grow up rather than 'lose the ability' to do so and your reasons are very reasonable. How we just dont have enough time becuase of our lifestyle.
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