Epilogue: “Broken knowledge”? Theoria and wonder

Summary

It is true that the contemplation of the creatures of God hath for its end … knowledge, but as to the nature of God, no knowledge, but wonder; which is nothing but knowledge broken off, or losing itself.

Francis Bacon

For the clarity we are aiming at is indeed complete clarity. But this simply means that the philosophical problems should completely disappear. The real discovery is the one that makes me able to stop doing philosophy when I want to – the one that gives philosophy peace.

Wittgenstein

Wonder is the foundation of all philosophy, inquiry its progress, ignorance its end. I'll go further: there is a certain strong and generous ignorance that concedes nothing to knowledge in honor and courage, an ignorance that requires no less knowledge to conceive it than does knowledge.

Montaigne

Wonder plays an essential role in the pursuit and practice of theoria, yet it is rarely analyzed in the scholarly literature. As Aristotle stated so memorably in the Metaphysics:

It is through wonder (ϑαυμάζειν) that men originally began, and still begin, to philosophize, wondering at first about obvious perplexities, and then … experiencing perplexity (διαπορήσαντες) about greater matters … Now the man who is perplexed and wonders (ʾαπορῶν καί ϑαυμάζων) thinks himself ignorant … therefore, if it was to escape (Φεύγειν) ignorance that men practiced philosophy, it is clear that they pursued knowledge for the sake of knowing, and not for the sake of anything useful.

(982b)