Take some time to wonder...

Wonder can take us unawares: we see someone or something as if for the first time and we’re surprised by wonder; a new view of the world, like the Hubble photographs of deep space, and we’re surprised by wonder; a glimpse of virtuosity when ordinary skill displays extraordinary artistry, and we’re surprised by wonder. A glimpse of beauty in any of its infinite forms, and we’re surprised by wonder.

When he was a journalist, G. K. Chesterton kept a diary about ordinary things: a bed-post or a lamp-post, a window- blind or a wall.

He wanted to “exercise the eye until it learns to see startling facts that run across the landscape as plain as a painted fence”, and his point was really very simple: that “the world will never starve for want of wonders, but only for want of wonder.”

Familiarity is the end of wonder. During childhood, when everything is new, wonder is a driving force – wanting to know what things mean, how things work, what things are – children are full of wonder all the time, about all sorts of things.

By the time we grow up, we’ve got all the answers, and our wondering becomes a bit more pedestrian: I wonder where I left my keys.  I wonder what the weather will be like tomorrow. I wonder where I can find a less-expensive flat-screen television. I wonder what they think of me.

Wonder can be another name for astonishment, admiration, reverence or awe – but it can also be a verb describing something we do, like inquiring into or speculating about something.

So philosophy begins with wonder at the unknown, proceeds by wondering through inquiry and finally ends in wonder as silent admiration.

Take some time to wonder.

Forthcoming 2010 Breathing Space titles:
•    What's Love Got To Do With It?
•    Knower's Arc
•    Joie de Vivre
•    iMind
•    The Royal Road

"Wonder is the first passion of the soul" – Descartes, Passions de L’âme

Philosophy”, said Socrates, “Begins in wonder” and the aim of the Breathing Space talks is to provide the time and space to wonder.

Event Details

NAME: Breathing Space - A New Series of Talks

SPEAKER: Anthony Renshaw, Head of School, NSW & ACT Practical Philosophy

DATE: Various Sunday Mornings

TIME: 10:00am

VENUE: Hyde Park Towers, Level 1, 142-148 Elizabeth Street

TICKETS: $12.00 online; $15.00 at the door

Click HERE to book

Click HERE for further information on the next talk

Click HERE for a copy of the current brochure