Amazement

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Amazed girls in Nepal
Fritz Lipmann's son is amazed at his father's Nobel Prize for Medicine (1953)

Amazement is an emotion when experiencing the unexpected.

Essence

It is accompanied by a neurobiological state of excitement, an inner restless state that promotes motivation to explore and learn previously unknown. The provided arousal potential makes it possible to restore the inner balance that was lost through the confrontation with the "unsuitable" new thing. This corresponds to astonishment as a trigger for a “conflict by surprise” according to Berlyne (1960). Amazement is related to curiosity .

Learning initiated through amazement is thus motivated from within / intrinsically because the person strives for inner balance.

Astonishment is often expressed through interjections - oh, vulgo booah.

philosophy

Aristotle sees in amazement (Greek θαυμάζειν "thaumazein") the beginning of philosophizing , which places a strong emphasis on amazement. Philosophy appreciates things that seem self-evident at first sight. Self-evident are referred to as "mere opinion " (dóxa). When questioning what is taken for granted , astonishing, previously unconsidered and new truths (alétheia) emerge.

For Plato , amazement was the beginning of all philosophy :

"Μάλα γὰρ φιλοσόφου τοῦτο τὸ πάθος, τὸ θαυμάζειν: οὐ γὰρ ἄλλη ἀρχὴ φιλοσοφίας ἢ αὕτη. -
The amazement is the attitude of a man who truly loves wisdom, yes there is no other beginning of philosophy than this. "

- Plato : Theaetetus 155 d

The dissonance between mere opinion and new truth promotes the pursuit of knowledge . By questioning things that have not been considered so far, philosophical amazement advances science . Amazement creates an inner movement and tension, which leads to an active, independent discussion of something (Aristotle, Schreier, Schiefele). The curiosity is stimulated. This unexpected should be understood, made something familiar and internalized. In this way, amazement becomes a question and generates motivation to learn something new.

psychology

The Italian Gestalt psychologist Giuseppe Galli ( University of Macerata ) counts amazement among the social virtues : They are each characterized by a specific structure of the relationship field . The ego steps back in astonishment, the perceived object can come into its own in its uniqueness for its own sake without being appropriated.

Expression

(nachempfundener) moment of surprise by two scientists of different cultures at a Discovery or a Eureka -moment

The type of amazement can be colored differently, depending on whether the unexpected or surprising arouses a "believing" or an "unbelieving" amazement. Accordingly, it is accompanied by different emotions such as admiration, respect, admiration or alienation, irritation, suspicion.

If an unexpected event occurs very suddenly, the person reacts with “astonishment” and in an increased form with horror .

See also

literature

Web links

Wikiquote: Amazement  - Quotes
Wiktionary: be amazed  - explanations of meanings, word origins, synonyms, translations

Individual evidence

  1. ↑ DE Berlyne (1974): Conflict, excitement, curiosity. On the psychology of cognitive motivation. Klett-Verlag Stuttgart (Original 1960)
  2. ↑ University of Cologne, A. Schulte-Jantzen 2002: Learning to be amazed  ( page no longer available , search in web archives )  Info: The link was automatically marked as defective. Please check the link according to the instructions and then remove this notice.@1@ 2Template: Toter Link / www.uni-koeln.de  
  3. ^ Giuseppe Galli: Psychology of social virtues. Böhlau, Vienna 1999, pp. 82-93.