Awe and wonder

“It is owing to wonder that men, both now begin, and at first began to philosophise.“

Aristotle, Metaphysics 982 b 12 ff.

“Wonder is the feeling of a philosopher, and philosophy begins in wonder”.

Socrates, Plato, Theaetetus 155c-d

In common with most children, I had an insatiable curiosity and would ask “why?” whenever I came across something new.

To my knowledge, it all started when I looked in the mirror and, for the first time, was aware that the image facing me was “me”. As a child of maybe 3 or 4, I had not much idea of what “me” was but it gave me a strong feeling of awe which has stayed with me ever since and has fuelled my investigations.

On the more mundane level, as far back as I can remember I have been fascinated by how things work. I’ve done plenty of prodding and pushing to see what happened and had a particular fascination with electricity and electronics – an interest which stayed with me all my life and which branched out into wider areas of science.

I was also told that God had made us all and He could see everything we did even though we couldn’t see Him. I was told that my deceased grandma was in a place called Heaven but that, to my surprise, I couldn’t write her a letter like I could to my Aunt in America.

To me there was no distinction between “natural” and “supernatural”. There were things which were observed, explanations which were given and beliefs which followed. So long as the explanations and the beliefs were consistent with what was observed then all was well. If there was a contradiction then that was a target for investigation.

As I grew up through school and university, I was encouraged to be more rigorous in the way I prodded things to see what happened and was introduced to what is called the “scientific method“. Although it seemed like it something which would take the fun out of experimenting, it is a method which has been very successful n increasing our knowledge about Nature and finding ways to predict and control her.

As well as incorporating checks and balances to ensure rigor, it facilitates many people, over time and geography, to cooperate on finding answers to questions of interest.