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Wonder and Awe: On the Edges of What Cannot Be Held - The Deeper Thinking Podcast

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Wonder and Awe: On the Edges of What Cannot Be Held

The Deeper Thinking Podcast

For those drawn to quiet thresholds, unrepeatable presence, and the philosophical weight of silence.

Awe rarely arrives with explanation. It brushes the edge of sense, disrupts the rhythm of thought, and leaves behind no insight—only a shift. In this episode, we explore wonder not as feeling or fact, but as attention. As residue. As refusal. We follow the traces left by formative encounters with what could not be named, and ask what remains when the world no longer fits the words we give it. What does it mean to witness rather than explain? To dwell in what exceeds our grasp, without turning it into knowledge?

This episode is not about wonder. It moves with it. We draw on the philosophies of Simone Weil, Gaston Bachelard, Karen Barad, and the art of Agnes Martin and John Cage to hold open a space for the ineffable: that which remains intact only when we stop trying to hold it.

We ask: What happens when awe is no longer accessible through grandeur? What if its deepest register is not scale, but fracture? What kinds of knowing begin where explanation ends?

Reflections

This episode lingers in the atmosphere of what cannot be named. It does not pursue awe. It waits for it. It follows its residue through quiet disruptions in time, attention, and sense.

Awe is not the event—it is what escapes it.
Wonder is not resolution. It is a refusal to conclude.
To witness is not to see clearly—but to stay with what blurs.
Some truths are not lost. They are untranslatable by design.
Philosophy does not always clarify. Sometimes, it listens.

Why Listen?

Reframe awe as ethical stance rather than emotional state
Explore the cognitive displacement of wonder through explanation
Engage with Barad, Weil, Bachelard, and Cage on perception and presence
Consider how attention itself becomes a philosophical act

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Bibliography

Weil, Simone. Gravity and Grace.
Bachelard, Gaston. The Poetics of Space.
Barad, Karen. Meeting the Universe Halfway.
Martin, Agnes. Paintings and Writings.
Cage, John. Silence: Lectures and Writings.

Bibliography Relevance

Simone Weil: Attention as metaphysical openness.
Gaston Bachelard: Space and reverie as epistemic acts.
Karen Barad: Intra-active perception beyond observer/object duality.
Agnes Martin: Minimalism as spiritual attention.
John Cage: Silence as compositional philosophy.

Some encounters are not to be understood. Only felt. And even then—barely.

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