MOTION MOUNTAIN

316 9 concepts, lies and patterns of nature
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drive one to findall the parts andall the interactions. It drives not only people. It has been
observed that when rats show curious behaviour, certain brain cells in the hypothalamus
get active and secrete hormones that produce positive feelings and emotions. If a rat has
the possibility, via some implanted electrodes, to excite these same cells by pressing a
switch, it does so voluntarily: rats get addicted to the feelings connected with curiosity.
Like rats, humans are curious because they enjoy it. They do so in at least four ways:
because they are artists, because they are fond of pleasure, because they are adventurers
and because they are dreamers. Let us see how.
Originally, curiosity stems from the desire to interact in a positive way with the environment.Youngchildrenprovide
good examples: curiosity is a natural ingredient of their
life, in the same way that it is for other mammals and a few bird species; incidentally, the
same taxonomic distribution is found for play behaviour. In short, all animals that play
are curious, and vice versa. Curiosity provides the basis for learning, for creativity and
thus for every human activity that leaves a legacy, such as art or science. The sculptor
and art theoretician Joseph Beuys had as his own guiding principle that every creative
act is a form of art. Humans, and especially children, enjoy curiosity because they feel its
importance for creativity, and for growth in general.
Curiosity regularly leads one to exclaim: ‘Oh!’, an experience that leads to the second
reason to be curious: relishing feelings of wonder and surprise. Epicurus (Epikuros)
(b. 341 Samos, d. 271bce Athens) maintained that this experience, θαυµάζειν, is the origin
of philosophy. These feelings, which nowadays are variously called religious, spiritual,
numinous, etc., are thesameas thoseto which rats can becomeaddicted. Among
thesefeelings,RudolfOttohasintroducedthenowclassicaldistinctionintothefascinatingandthefrightening.Henamedthecorrespondingexperiences‘mysteriumfascinans’
and ‘mysterium tremendum’.* Withinthesedistinctions,physicists,scientists,children
and connoisseurs take a clear stand: they choose the fascinans as the starting point for
their actions and for their approach to the world. Such feelings of fascination induce
some children who look at the night sky to dream about becoming astronomers,some
wholookthroughamicroscopeto becomebiologists orphysicists,and soon. (It could
alsobethatgeneticsplaysaroleinthispleasureofnovelty seeking.)
Perhaps the most beautiful moments in the study of physics are those appearing after
new observations have shaken our previously held thinking habits, have forced us to give
up a previously held conviction, and have engendered the feeling of being lost. When,
in this moment of crisis, we finally discover a more adequate and precise description of
the observations, which provide a better insight into the world, we are struck by a feeling
usually called illumination. Anyone who has kept alive the memory and the taste for
these magic moments knows that in these situations one is pervaded by a feeling of union
between oneself and the world.**The pleasure of these moments, the adventures of the
*ThisdistinctionisthebasisofRudolf Otto,DasHeilige–ÜberdasIrrationaleinderIdeedesGöttlichen
und sein Verhältnis zum Rationalen, Beck 1991.This is a new edition of the epoch-making work originally
publishedatthe beginning ofthe twentieth century. RudolfOtto (b.1869Peine,d.1937Marburg) wasone
ofthemostimportant theologians ofhistime.
** Several researchershave studied the situations leading to these magic moments in more detail, notably
the physician and physicist Hermann von Helmholtz (b. 1821 Potsdam, d. 1894Charlottenburg) and the
mathematicianHenriPoincaré(b.1854Nancy,d.1912Paris).Theydistinguishfourstagesintheconception
ofan ideaatthebasisofsuchamagic moment:saturation, incubation,illumination andverification.
Motion Mountain – The Adventure of Physics copyright © Christoph Schiller June 1990–November 2015 free pdf file available at www.motionmountain.net