There are emotions that feel essential to our survival.

Love bonds us to other people.

Fear and anger can protect us.

Joy can sustain us.

But there's another mental state that has probably pushed us

forward as a species, and that is wonder. We marvel at what seems too vast to fully comprehend.

We explore and experiment to gain understanding. And inevitably, if we are open to them,

we discover new wonders in the process.

From KERA in Dallas, this is Think.

I'm Chris Boyd.

I hadn't realized that philosophers over time have taken very different positions on the value of wonder.

Descartes thought it was a good source of inspiration for inquiry, but that the goal of any investigation should be to shut Wonder down.

My guest agrees with the idea that Wonder can be the impetus for great thinking,

but she believes the way Wonder takes us beyond ourselves and opens us up to compassion, love, and gratitude,

make it worthy of deliberate cultivation.

And no matter how much we have already learned and lived through,

she says it's possible to find wonder and awe throughout our lives.

Helen DeCruz is Danforth Chair in the Humanities and Professor of Philosophy at St. Louis University.

Her book is called Wonderstruck, how wonder and awe shape the way we think.

Helen, welcome to think.

Thank you so much for having me, Chris.

Maybe we should start by talking about these terms, wonder and awe, which are often used interchangeably. One thing they have in common, though, is that they are both epistemic emotions.

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