Kant on wonder as the motive to learn

Bibliographic Data

ID8090232
AuthorsMelissa Zinkin (Department of Philosophy Binghamton University Binghamton New York USA, corresponding author)
Year2021
Volume55
Issue6
Pages921-934
Publication date2021-11-29
Peer ReviewedYes
Open AccessYes
TypeARTICLE
VenueJournal of Philosophy of Education (JOURNAL)
Journal identifiersISSN: 0309-8249 • E-ISSN: 1467-9752
PublisherOxford University Press (OUP) (PUBLISHER)
DOI10.1111/1467-9752.12606
OpenAlexW3217503414
LanguageEN
Citations received6
References cited22

Kant writes, ‘to have trained one's children is not enough ... what really matters is that they learn to think’. By ‘thinking’, Kant means thinking for oneself. But how can one learn to think for oneself? I focus on how we can be motivated to think for ourselves and argue that for Kant it is through the feeling of wonder. I make my case by drawing an analogy between Kant's discussion of wonder and his discussion of respect. For Kant, we can learn to feel wonder and be motivated to think for ourselves by being presented with seemingly organised objects that give us the occasion to feel wonder. Moreover, for Kant, sometimes the same object that provides the occasion for wonder is also what produces the feeling of respect, namely the pure activity of reason. In this way, wonder helps us to learn how to be virtuous

Aesthetics · Analogy · Epistemology · Feeling · Object (grammar · Wonder · Epistemology, Ethics, and Metaphysics · Hannah Arendt's Political Philosophy · Philosophical Ethics and Theory · Psychology · Philosophy