On being underwhelmed (did anyone say crisis?)
It is not unusual, when introducing students to philosophy, to make some kind of allusion to wonderment, 'since it is because of wondering at things that humans, both now and at first, began to do philosophy'. The achievements of the ancient Greeks, they will be told, are the original expr...
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| Format: | Electronic Article |
| Language: | English |
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| Published: |
Informit
[2021]
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| In: |
The Australasian Catholic record
Year: 2021, Volume: 98, Issue: 1, Pages: 66-82 |
| RelBib Classification: | VA Philosophy ZC Politics in general |
| Summary: | It is not unusual, when introducing students to philosophy, to make some kind of allusion to wonderment, 'since it is because of wondering at things that humans, both now and at first, began to do philosophy'. The achievements of the ancient Greeks, they will be told, are the original expressions of philosophical wonderment, initiating an ongoing debate about the nature of things that spans generations. The attentive student, though, might query why anyone would deem it important enough to even want to embark on figuring out the nature of things, to unearth why things happen to be the way they are. After all, there are far more enjoyable pursuits than getting entangled in speculations that could lead nowhere. Their rationale, compared to the one that philosophers impute to their discipline, is arguably less dubious, and certainly less turgid. But then a series of questions start to take shape, perhaps annoyance at one's failure to coherently articulate those questions. As if to confirm Maurice Merleau- Ponty's dictum, 'True philosophy consists in relearning to look at the world', the ordinary is suddenly not so ordinary, imbued with a significance previously unanticipated. That is when the attentive student is hooked. Wonderment is now a permanent feature of one's approach to all manner of things; one's outlook becomes a bit more expansive, new light is shed on the details. And that is when the troubles kick in. |
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| ISSN: | 0727-3215 |
| Contains: | Enthalten in: The Australasian Catholic record
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