JOURNEYS
We NEED to know: even approximate knowledge can advance all the biological needs subordinate to self-actualization (being “all we can be”). Recall Aristotle, the epigraph in A&O notes on The Need to Know: “All men by nature desire to know.”[ii] (and all learning is a journey in which we change to accommodate the challenge of reconciling the dissonance created by the meeting of what we know with new knowledge sought or encountered, as mapped in POST on JOURNEYS .
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Most deeply inspired, however, by WONDER which in and of itself is sought not merely a question, but a state of joy in the possibilities of the unknown: For example, contemplating a Grecian Urn, the poet (John Keats) “asks question after question about the urn, not to uncover facts or ‘answers’, but rather to sustain his experience of wonder and curiosity.” (the poem; Aparna Chivukula in https://aeon.co/)
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As in the journey IS the destination, can we say, the question IS the answer? It is often said that “Seeking is the goal and the search is the answer” (sometimes attributed to Emerson (but see quote investigator) and most poignantly, the collection of excerpts from the journal of Dan Eldon, the journey is the destination (Chronicle Books, 1997; ISBN 10: 0811815862). see also in A&O notes on process-and-product and A&O notes on knowledge and truth)
(See more at A&O quote about Einstein’s philosophy)
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