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(2015) A neurophenomenology of awe and wonder, Dordrecht, Springer.
Liftoff
towards an exploration of subjective experience
Shaun Gallagher, Bruce Janz, Patricia Bockelman, Lauren Reinerman-Jones
pp. 1-16
Near the ruins of the ancient city of Miletus, you can still walk out into an open field at night and gaze at an extremely rich array of stars. According to a famous legend, in the sixth century BCE, Thales of Miletus, one of the first philosophers to appeal to naturalistic explanations, walking across a field and gazing at the stars, found the heavens so wondrous, or was so lost in his astronomical calculations, that he walked directly into a well. Wonder has a double meaning nicely captured in the uncertainty of Thales' mental state. Was he so awestruck by the starry vista that he was caught up in the reflective emotion of wonder, or was he so busy just wondering, intellectually, how the heavens worked? The two senses of the term meet in the claim that wonder is the beginning of philosophy. The first sense is closely tied to the feeling of awe; the second to the feeling of curiosity.
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Full citation:
Gallagher, S. , Janz, B. , Bockelman, , Reinerman-Jones, L. (2015). Liftoff: towards an exploration of subjective experience, in A neurophenomenology of awe and wonder, Dordrecht, Springer, pp. 1-16.
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