Have you ever seen a toddler look at ants?
My four-year-old son squats down to look closely at ants, flowers, and everything in between. He is far more curious about the world than I am on most days. Although regardless of our age, we can (and should) continue cultivating our curiosity.
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. The first is they're just new to the world. And they're constantly confused by it. So they're asking questions, and they're questioning everything. Like they don't yet know what the standard explanations of things are. They don't know what adults take for granted. So I think just like being perplexed by something, it 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. Silly, as I like to say, is the business that kids are in. So, they are willing to put their ideas out there and make arguments.”
How many of us have as a New Year’s resolution to practice wonder or be more childlike? Probably not too many. But maybe we should all get intentional about the wisdom of wonder.
“Wisdom begins in wonder.” — Socrates
On Wonder
In the book Curious, author Ian Leslie writes that children do not adhere to cultural knowledge; they are agents of their own learning. Anyone who has watched a baby knows first-hand how quick they are to lick, put in their mouth, and get into absolutely everything. Scientists at the National Institute of Child and Human Development discovered that “the more actively a baby explores his or her environment, the more likely they are to achieve academic success as an adolescent.”
However, Leslie writes our intellectual zeal tends to wane and settle into equilibrium as we age. Educational psychologist Susan Engel states curiosity begins to fade around four years old and often results in adults with fewer questions and more unconscious actions. According to the astrophysicist Neil deGrasse Tyson: “Kids are born curious about the world. What adults primarily do is unwittingly thwart the curiosity of children.”
Keep reading with a 7-day free trial
Subscribe to Perennial Meditations to keep reading this post and get 7 days of free access to the full post archives.