From awe to anxiety: The nature of wonder and its fate in the current age

摘要

That "philosophy begins in wonder" is an idiom oft cited and seldom explained. I propose that the relation between wonder and philosophy can be grasped through the conflict between the ancient and modern worldviews, which can be seen to follow from their distinct views on the nature of philosophical wonder. In the first part I claim that this distinction can ultimately be traced back to the original myth of wonder, or to the god Thaumas who beget both Iris, the goddess of the rainbow and messenger to the gods, as well as the Harpies, winged creatures who punish and terrify men on earth. I draw on the myth to explain the essentially dualistic nature of wonder, or the pathos for the unknown, which may lead either to curiosity about that which one does not know, or to anxiety about the lack of one's certain knowledge.;In the second part I assess the general significance of wonder and its value in an age when our desire for novelty, utility, and efficiency dissolves our sense of the unknown with the assurance that "all is possible". I propose that the advent of totalitarianism, trauma, and technology in the twentieth century has altered the cultural conditions that initially allowed for the primacy of wonder as a central passion of the soul in the ancient and modern worlds.