This is Marcus Chiu [Response to Assignment #1]

"...the only thing we require to be a good philosopher is the faculty of wonder..."

“…as they grow up the faculty of wonder seems to diminish…”

As the quote above implies, we must have the urge to seek the truth, to question that which may even be what we call as ‘facts’, to question the world around us and us ourselves, and even to question the answers provided, in order to become a good philosopher. One of the things Albert Knox evaluates upon in one of his ‘Philosophy Lessons’ in chapter two, are our levels of curiosity set from birth until death, how we “(reach) out in curiosity to everything (we) see” and yet when we grow up, we as adults lose this faculty of wonder. Why is this so?

It may because we as adults in this modern society have no need to become good philosophers; our minds become limited to the range of ideas that we can wonder and explore. We have no time to stop and ponder about why are world is like this, why we are here, what are our purposes. People become too focused on the functions of our daily lives to even bother to take a break from reality. In the time of ancient mythologies, where the main beliefs in the West were Greek, Egyptian and Norse, there were many Philosophers (though some obviously not great, that is another issue), who argued and discussed the reasons of how and why things are as they are. They made stories and myths that many came to know, and they, at that time, were adults. Surely this is an example of a great number of have not lost their faculty of wonder. Nowadays, there are more solid explanations, scientific facts that prove why, for example, the sky is blue, or why it rains, giving us less to ‘wonder’ about.

We do not lose the ability to wonder. It is innate. We are born with it. Everyday, people wonder about things that are more specific than the generalized term of ‘world’ that Albert Knox has used. Managers wonder how they can improve sales for their business, scientists wonder if there is an even smaller particle than an electron, beggars wonder why their life has become what it is as of now. A reason as of why not everyone wonders about how the world was created or why we are here, or if there is life after death, because in many people’s opinions, there is no need to wonder about these questions. Humans, as we grow up, tend to specialize in thinking about different things, and we think deep, analyzing outcomes and possibilities, creating experiments etc. The microscopic insects who call themselves Philosophers stand on the tip of the furs and ask the magician, “Who are you?” whilst the insects who call themselves farmers look at the skin of the rabbit and wonder “How do I make you softer to eat?”, ‘Biologist Insects’ who wonder “Why do the furs straighten when it is cold, and relax when hot” etc.

Our faculty of wonder never ceases to exist. As we grow up, we wonder deeper into our personal interests and we only become capable of thinking deeper and opening up more questions once we acquire more knowledge at first. Anyone can become a philosopher of a specific kind (e.g. a business philosopher who offers theories and views on business ethics – check http://dictionary.reference.com/browse/Philosopher for the meaning of ‘Philosopher’) which is why in the modern world, knowledge is ever-flowing into the minds of both young and old, and the thirst for more knowledge, our need to wonder, never dies, but grows.

Marcus Chiu