Wonder – The daily blog of behavioral and cognitive economics

The most profound wonder is stirred by what is most ordinary

Rare moments of wonder at the mere existence of things – rather than the dramatic or new – involve perceiving with the soul. ‘It is!’ exclaims Samuel Taylor Coleridge in his essay ‘The Friend’, struck with awe by the sheer existence of things – be it a person, a flower, or even a grain of sand. The particular forms of existence – person, flower, sand – point to a silent, but wondrous fact that they share: they are. Coleridge is not alone in describing this strange wonder, nor is he the first. Plato thought that philosophy begins with profound wonder at being. Ludwig Wittgenstein spoke of the wonder at the fact that anything exists at all as central for the good life. ….[READ]