Astonishment and Science

Science can reveal or conceal the breathtaking wonders of creation. On one hand, knowledge of the natural world can open us up to greater love for the Creator, give us the means of more neighborly care, and fill us with ever-deepening astonishment. On the other hand, knowledge feeding an insatiable hunger for epistemic mastery can become a means of idolatry, hubris, and damage. Crucial to world-respecting science is the role of wonder: curiosity, perplexity, and astonishment. In this volume, philosopher William Desmond explores the relation of the different modes of wonder to modern science. Responding to his thought are twelve thinkers across the domains of science, theology, philosophy, law, poetry, medicine, sociology, and art restoration.

Introduction
--Paul Tyson

The Dearth of Astonishment: On Curiosity, Scientism, and Thinking as Negativity
--William Desmond

Preparing to Paint the Virgin's Robe
--Spike Bucklow

Cultivating Wonder
--Steven Knepper

The Astonishment of Philosophy: William Desmond and Isabelle Stengers
--Simone Kotva

Astonishment and the Social Sciences
--Paul Tyson

Curiosity, Perplexity, and Astonishment in the Natural Sciences
--Andrew Davison

Scientism as the Dearth of the Nothing
--Richard J. Colledge

The Determinations of Medicine and the Too-Muchness of Being
--Jeffrey Bishop

Attending to Infinitude: Law as in-between the Overdeterminate and Practical Judgment
--Jonathan Horton

Life's Wonder
--Simon Oliver

Being in Control
--Michael Hanby

Wondering about the Science/Scientism Distinction
--D. C. Schindler

Basil and Desmond on Wonder and the Astonishing Return of Christian Metaphysics

--Isidoros C. Katsos

The Children of Wonder: On Scientism and Its Changelings
--William Desmond