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This Space, and the seeds of Uncertainty

This little flower, not the big one above, is perched a top Letters from a Librarian’s blog:  "I’m talking nonsense, I know, but I would rather babble away and at least partially express something difficult than reproduce impeccable cliches." ~ Hans – Thomas Mann’s Magic Mountain. 

Planted in this soil: Reference to a lecture by author/teacher Eva Brann with this conclusion:

If philosophy is directed wonder then we need not follow the lead of the sciences in asking only warrantably pursuable questions or abandon answers because their complete formal justification proves elusive. Then we are permitted to assume that when
something arouses such wonder in us it is given to us, first and last, as wonderful, however relentlessly we may work it over in between.

Wonder seems to me to be a pretty good motivation when it comes to trying to understand that which cannot be understood. An antidote to the irritation felt when reaching after fact & reason in places endemically uncertain and mysterious. 

All of this grows from this, which in part stemmed from this little seed…the kind that Stephen Mitchelmore is so good at planting.  

This entry was posted on Monday, April 14th, 2008 at 7:23 AM and is filed under Literary Criticism. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.

3 Responses to “This Space, and the seeds of Uncertainty”

  1. Lauren Says:
    April 19th, 2008 at 4:11 PM

    Thanks so much for stopping by my little corner, and for appreciating Hans’ quote.  I have that little piece of wisdom stuck up above my workspace as a constant reminder to myself.

  2. Nigel Beale Says:
    April 19th, 2008 at 5:10 PM

    My pleasure Lauren. Your little corner is a delightful one. 

  3. Mark Thwaite Says:
    April 22nd, 2008 at 9:13 AM

    "Wonder seems to me to be a pretty good motivation when it comes to trying to understand that which cannot be understood." Indeed, and then accepting that some things can’t be understood is part of the wonder of art.

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