“Wonder is the feeling of a philosopher, and philosophy begins in wonder.”
Socrates (-470–-399 BC) classical Greek Athenian philosopher
Theaetetus, 155d
Plato, Theaetetus
if he does depart from his state of wonder, he has ceased to philosophize.
Source: Leisure, the Basis of Culture (1948), The Philosophical Act, pp. 105–106
“Wonder is the feeling of a philosopher, and philosophy begins in wonder.”
Socrates (-470–-399 BC) classical Greek Athenian philosopher
Theaetetus, 155d
Plato, Theaetetus
“Wonder is the feeling of a philosopher, and philosophy begins in wonder.”
Plato book Theaetetus
155, The Dialogues of Plato, Volume 3, 1871, p. 377 http://books.google.com/books?id=4kQNAAAAIAAJ&pg=PA377 <br class="br">Theaetetus
Aristotle book Metaphysics
Metaphysics by Aristotle – Book 1, ClassicalWisdom.com
The second sentence is in Metaphysics A 2, 928<sup>b</sup> 17–20, Aristotle: Metaphysics Beta: Symposium Aristotelicum, Michel Crubellier & Andre´ Laks, eds. (Oxford University Press, 2009), p. 4.
Metaphysics
Variant: [And] one who experiences a difficulty and who feels wonder thinks that he does not understand..., so that, if it is to escape ignorance that they have practised philosophy, then it is clearly for the sake of knowing, and not for any practical purpose, that they have pursued understanding.
Leo Strauss (1899–1973) Classical philosophy specialist and father of neoconservativism
Philosophy as Rigorous Science and Political Philosophy (1971)
Novalis (1772–1801) German poet and writer
Novalis (1829)
Context: The true philosophical Act is annihilation of self (Selbsttodtung); this is the real beginning of all Philosophy; all requisites for being a Disciple of Philosophy point hither. This Act alone corresponds to all the conditions and characteristics of transcendental conduct.
Sören Kierkegaard (1813–1855) Danish philosopher and theologian, founder of Existentialism
Journals and Papers III 3284 (1841)
1840s, The Journals of Søren Kierkegaard, 1840s
Josef Pieper (1904–1997) German philosopher
But man is not made to live "out there" permanently! Certainly, it is a more valuable question, as such, to ask about the whole world and the ultimate nature of things. But the answer is not as easily forthcoming as for the special sciences!
The Dilthey quote is from Briefwechsel zwischen Wilhelm Dilthey und dem Grafen Paul Yorck v. Wartenberg, 1877–1897 (Hall/Salle, 1923), p. 39.
Source: Leisure, the Basis of Culture (1948), The Philosophical Act, pp. 109–111
Slavoj Žižek (1949) Slovene philosopher
Conversations with Žižek by Slavoj Žižek and Glyn Daly (Cambridge: Polity Press, 2004), p. 54