Premium
A SUDDEN SURPRISE OF THE SOUL: THE PASSION OF WONDER IN HOBBES AND DESCARTES
Author(s) -
DECKARD MICHAEL FUNK
Publication year - 2008
Publication title -
the heythrop journal
Language(s) - English
Resource type - Journals
SCImago Journal Rank - 0.127
H-Index - 10
eISSN - 1468-2265
pISSN - 0018-1196
DOI - 10.1111/j.1468-2265.2008.00419.x
Subject(s) - wonder , passion , soul , surprise , curiosity , philosophy , epistemology , natural philosophy , natural (archaeology) , literature , art , psychology , history , social psychology , psychotherapist , archaeology
Philosophy begins in wonder , according to Plato and Aristotle. However, they did not expand a great deal on what precisely wonder is. Does this fact alone not raise curiosity in us as to why this passion is important? What is its role in our thinking except to end as soon as one begins conceptually delimiting its nature? The thinkers Thomas Hobbes and René Descartes both expanded upon earlier brief articulations of wonder in natural, supernatural and practical ways. By means of an historical and philosophical examination of these two early modern thinkers, this article hopes to begin to answer the question: ‘What is wonder?’