Dear Fellow Traveler,
What does it actually mean to wonder? Consider reflecting on your level of curiosity about yourself, others, and the world. Interestingly, many of us were once far more curious than we are today.
As the astrophysicist Neil deGrasse Tyson observed,
Kids are born curious about the world. What adults primarily do is unwittingly thwart the curiosity of children.
Similarly, my conversation with Scott Hershovitz (author of Nasty, Brutish, and Short) discussed why kids are naturally good philosophers.
Herschovitz explained,
I think there are two reasons kids make good philosophers. … They’re asking questions, and they’re questioning everything. They don’t yet know what the standard explanations of things are. They don’t know what adults take for granted. Being perplexed by something, helps them see what’s puzzling. And the second reason I think they make good philosophers is that they’re not afraid of sounding silly. When they ask questions, they’re not afraid of getting things wrong when they try to answer questions. …
