Bureau/Division/Agency
Library
Files
Download Full Text (2.7 MB)
Document Type
Text
Broad Creation Date
2024
Language
English
Location
Portland
Abstract
This project explores the relationship between wonder and trauma within the realms of philosophy, art, and human existence. The inquiry begins with the etymological and mythological kinship between the ancient Greek words for wonder (thauma) and trauma (trauma). It reveals a reciprocal correspondence that goes beyond linguistic and symbolic affinities to the origins of basic thinking. The central thesis is that wonder and trauma are the same—where the ‘same’ means opposing, nonidentical aspects—in the experience of thaumazein. This primordial, disclosive wonder signifies a disposition, attunement, pathos, or mood. Thaumazein is also a philosophic wonder because it signifies the experience, in thought, said to be the beginning, archē, of philosophy and the one true pathos of the philosopher. Although wonder is named as the beginning of philosophy by the pre-Platonics, its meaning changes over time through its usage by Plato, Aristotle, Descartes, and modern scientists. A sub-thesis of this dissertation is that while metaphysics, modern science, and logical thinking still claims to be able to wonder as the ancient Greeks did, wonder’s meaning has been radically flattened and forgotten. The history of metaphysics is the history of its repression of the trauma inherent to all life and human existence. This inquiry expands on Heidegger’s claim that the history of metaphysics is the forgetting of Being by investigating how the process of forgetting is intimately related to the neurotic repression of the traumatic in the experience of wonder. This project explores possibilities for the recovery and cultivation of this forgotten attunement, in which wonder and trauma are one. To that end, the medium of photography in general and the photographic work and life of Garry Winogrand in particular offer real-world examples of how the wonder and trauma in thaumazein can inform the creative process and its results in today’s world.
Disciplines
Arts and Humanities | Other Linguistics | Philosophy | Photography | Psychology
Publisher
Institute for Doctoral Studies in the Visual Arts
City
Portland ME
Recommended Citation
Tanner, Nicolas Márquez-Sterling, "The Hidden Intimacy of Wonder and Trauma: Genealogical, Hermeneutic, & Phenomenological Analyses of a Fundamental Mood & Its Relation to Thinking, Seeing, & Being-In-The World" (2024). Academic Research and Dissertations. 57.
https://digitalmaine.com/academic/57
Rights Statement
In Copyright - Educational Use Permitted. URI: http://rightsstatements.org/vocab/InC-EDU/1.0/
This Item is protected by copyright and/or related rights. You are free to use this Item in any way that is permitted by the copyright and related rights legislation that applies to your use. In addition, no permission is required from the rights-holder(s) for educational uses. For other uses, you need to obtain permission from the rights-holder(s).