The Aesthetic Experience of Wonder and Philosophy - Jacob Hamilton

 Aesthetic experience and Philosophy have a complicated relationship. Philosophy seeks to analyze and break things down. An aesthetic experience is immediate. One does not come to it through an analytic mindset. When I watch a sunset, I do not think about it and decide it is beautiful. It simply strikes me as such. Yet, In Plato, we see that aesthetic experience is crucial in one’s philosophical journey. This is evident in the Symposium where Socrates describes the ladder of love. The search for ultimate reality and the search for the beautiful are revealed to be one. 

Furthermore, in Plato’s Theaetetus, wonder is identified as the origin of philosophy. Wonder seems to me to be a type of aesthetic experience that might properly be classed as a type of sublime experience. We wonder about something when we lack understanding and therefore it is like the sublime. Yet, does the Philosopher seek to overcome wonder? If we take Socrates as the model philosopher and take a second to dwell on Socrates maxim, “I know that know nothing,” the answer is negative. I think Socrates' statement demonstrates an awareness that wonder can never truly be overcome. The philosopher is spurred by the aesthetic experience of wonder to speculate. Yet, if the philosopher be a true lover of wisdom, then he understands that all speculation are mere shadows on the wall.  

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