Wondering about Wonder

In chapter 15 Arendt discusses Plato's response to "what makes us think?" and expands on Plato's theory that wonder is the origin of our cognitive abilities. The one stipulation that Arendt makes is that "the wonder that is the starting-point of thinking is neither puzzlement nor surprise nor perplexity; it is an admiring wonder" (143). This is an important distinction because it leads to the later discussion of Being and its relation to thinking and the divine. One way this connection is made is by Arendt's explanation of one of the supposed proofs of the existence of God, that nothing causes itself to exist and therefore was caused by something else. That thing that caused the first thing must have a previous cause and this chain continues, but, since it cannot continue forever, must arrive "at something which is its own cause...the ultimate cause, called 'God'" (145). The importance of faith in this "primary mover" is reflected later in Arendt when she states that "the element of admiration in Plato's wonder needs faith in a Creator-God to save human reason from its speechless dizzy glance into the abyss of nothingness" (147). Arendt even goes on to say that without wonder, it is Being's fault that nothingness becomes unfathomable.