Any More Questions?

Adam Smith once wrote that wonder arises “when something quite new and singular is presented… [and] memory cannot, from all its stores, cast up any image that nearly resembles this strange appearance”.

But is Smith right? Or does what James T. Mangan say in his book, You Can Do Anything! sound closer to the truth?

“Any normal child, at about the age of three or four, reaches the asking period, the time when that quickly developing brain is most eager for knowledge. “When?” “Where?” “How?” “What?” and “Why?” begs the child — but all too often the reply is “Keep still!” “Leave me alone!” “Don’t be a pest!”

Those first bitter refusals to our honest questions of childhood all too often squelch our “Asking faculty.” We grow up to be men and women, still eager for knowledge, but afraid and ashamed to ask in order to get it.”

I feel that while what Mangan says is definitely true, it’s only part of the reason we stop asking questions as adults.

In many cases, Jesse Prinz points out that the question genuinely doesn’t interest us as adults:

“Children at the circus are content to ogle at a spectacle. Adults might tire of it, craving wonders that are more profound, fertile, illuminating.”

That’s a choice we make.

On others, we stop asking because understanding the answer is a lot of work! As Richard Feynman said about modern day physics:

“You need the math just to understand what's been done so far.”

That’s just laziness! Maybe it’s time we stop blaming adults for everything!