Wonderment: A Philosophical Analysis of Its Nature and Its Attending Virtue

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dc.contributor.advisorSchroeder, Timothy
dc.contributor.advisorBradford, Gwen
dc.contributor.advisorFanger, Claire
dc.creatorSmith, Joshua Tyler
dc.date.accessioned2024-05-21T21:57:02Z
dc.date.available2024-05-21T21:57:02Z
dc.date.created2024-05
dc.date.issued2024-04-18
dc.date.submittedMay 2024
dc.date.updated2024-05-21T21:57:02Z
dc.description.abstractThis dissertation delves into the emotion of wonderment and proposes that it serves as a foundation for a neglected virtue: openness to wonderment. I divide this work into two parts. In the initial part, Chapters 2 and 3, I present my account of wonderment and its close connection with the perception of a beautiful mystery. In order to motivate this account, I provide sketches of what beauty and mystery are and how responding to them constitutes wonderment. This account nicely captures the cognitive and emotional engagement that is recognizable in wonderment and how wonderment is both inviting and daunting. In the second part of this work, detailed in Chapters 4 and 5, I transition to consider the virtue of openness to wonderment. In this second part, I have two broad aims. First, to show that this neglected virtue is, in fact, a virtue. Second, to show that this virtue is valuable for human life. Openness to wonderment is characterized not simply by passive receptivity but also equally by active cultivation of our attention and appreciation for wonder-inducing experiences. I consider several features of familiar virtues, like being a dispositional state, involving emotion and deliberate choice, and orienting actions to a noble end and I show that openness to wonderment has all of these familiar features of virtues. I highlight that not only is this virtue’s value grounded in it being a virtue, but it is also valuable in that it enhances one's capacity for transformative contemplation of the world. I end by discussing further avenues for future research that explore its connection to contemplation and one's worldview.
dc.format.mimetypeapplication/pdf
dc.identifier.citationSmith, Joshua. Wonderment: A Philosophical Analysis of Its Nature and Its Attending Virtue. (2024). PhD diss., Rice University. https://hdl.handle.net/1911/116145
dc.identifier.urihttps://hdl.handle.net/1911/116145
dc.language.isoeng
dc.rightsCopyright is held by the author, unless otherwise indicated. Permission to reuse, publish, or reproduce the work beyond the bounds of fair use or other exemptions to copyright law must be obtained from the copyright holder.
dc.subjectWonder
dc.subjectwonderment
dc.subjectbeauty
dc.subjectmystery
dc.subjectvirtue
dc.subjectcontemplation
dc.subjectvirtue theory
dc.subjectAristotelian
dc.subjectmoral psychology
dc.subjectphilosophical psychology
dc.subjectphilosophy of emotion
dc.titleWonderment: A Philosophical Analysis of Its Nature and Its Attending Virtue
dc.typeThesis
dc.type.materialText
thesis.degree.departmentPhilosophy
thesis.degree.disciplineHumanities
thesis.degree.grantorRice University
thesis.degree.levelDoctoral
thesis.degree.nameDoctor of Philosophy
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