Awe
In 1757, the Irish political philosopher Edmund Burke revolutionized the intellectual contemplation of awe with his celebrated “Philosophical Enquiry,” in which he described the distinction between beauty and “the sublime,” a de facto synonym for awe. Burke argued that the sublime was “our strongest passion.” It could often
... See moreHenry Wismayer • Finding Awe Amid Everyday Splendor
he gazed for an hour upon the great clouds of pearl that hang forever upon the horizon of that sea, and extracted from their beauty a resignation that he did not permit his reason to examine.
Thornton Wilder • The Bridge of San Luis Rey: A Novel (Perennial Classics)
Annual Review of Neuroscience 32 (2009): 289–313. For recent thinking on the amygdala, see: FeldmanHall, Oriel, Paul Glimcher, Augustus L. Baker, NYU PROSPEC Collaboration, and Elizabeth A. Phelps.
Dacher Keltner • Awe: The Transformative Power of Everyday Wonder
Awe is something you feel when confronted with forces beyond your control: nature, the cosmos, chaos, human error, hallucinations.