Dubious ideas, including notions about disease or climate risk that run contrary to the scientific consensus, are easier to question if we acquire rough renderings of the mechanisms involved. Even the most schematic understanding of gravity, stars and planets, for instance, can make one more suspicious of causal claims by astrologers. It can also help provide a shield against misinformation. Wonder and the learning it encourages enable us to more fully engage with others – not just about topics such as cosmology or evolution, but also pressing current issues such as epidemics and the climate crisis. If this sounds overly euphoric, it is exactly how renowned polymaths describe their lives, from childhood to their final moments. Each instance of wondering in turn launches a branching network of new instances and opens a door to the potentially endless joy of successive discoveries. For example, through wondering and learning about how and why songbirds sing, how the first flowers break through frozen ground, and how animals hibernate, we come to see and experience the first days of spring in more immersive and rewarding ways. We come to see a more richly textured and dynamic reality. It helps us to appreciate everything around us more fully. In its most mature forms – in adults who have flourished as lifelong wonderers – wonder promotes sustained excavation of the rich causal architectures of the world. Wonder motivates targeted explorations and discoveries. It might even launch speculations about different possible worlds. It invokes conjectures about ‘how’ and ‘why’. Wonder involves active thought and engagement. It is also different from awe, which can occur as a more passive state of amazement. You employ wonder when you ask questions such as ‘How do fish breathe underwater?’ or ‘Why do air conditioners drip water?’ Wonder, as I describe it here, is more than the sort of curiosity that motivates someone to seek a simple factual answer (eg, ‘What is the biggest kind of dog?’) Wonder moves someone to seek out explanations – especially about the patterns of cause and effect that underlie phenomena. Wonder, a word with multiple related meanings, has one sense that captures this desire to know. Humans grow up with a powerful drive to learn how things work and why certain patterns and properties exist in the world.
0 Comments
Leave a Reply. |
AuthorWrite something about yourself. No need to be fancy, just an overview. ArchivesCategories |