Did I say that the only thing we require to be good philosophers is the faculty of wonder? If I did not, I say it now: THE ONLY THING WE REQUIRE TO BE GOOD PHILOSOPHERS IS THE FACULTY OF WONDER. Babies have this faculty. That is not surprising. After a few short months in the womb they slip out into a brand-new reality. But as they grow up the faculty of wonder seems to diminish. Why is this? Do you know? If a newborn baby could talk, it would probably say something about what an extraordinary world it had come into. We see how it looks around and reaches out in curiosity to everything it sees. As words are gradually acquired, the child looks up and says Bow-wow every time it sees a dog. It jumps up and down in its stroller, waving its aims: Bow-wow! Bow-wow! We who are older and wiser may feel somewhat exhausted by the childs enthusiasm. All right, all right, its a bow-wow, we say, unimpressed. Please sit still. We are not enthralled. We have seen a dog before. This rapturous performance may repeat itself hundreds of times before the child learns to pass a dog without going crazy. Or an elephant, or a hippopotamus. But long before the child learns to talk properly—and Ion before it learns to think philosophically—the world we have become a habit. - Sophies World
Posted on: Sat, 03 May 2014 16:14:00 +0000
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