Stanley reminds us that curiosity isn’t a virtue. For Pascal, it’s nothing more than the vanity of beings in love with their own capabilities. It distracts us from the duties that should flow from love of God and each other. Curiosity can easily morph into love of diversity or losing oneself in the pursuit of endless mental diversions. Curiosity properly channeled, though, can lead us to think about who we are and what we’re supposed to do. But the idea that “there’s always more to know” can also lead us to conclude it’s never time to do. The postmodern, conservative view is that curiosity–being a natural capability–could hardly be merely a vice, but it isn’t the true foundation of even intellectual virtue.
Wednesday, September 16, 2009, 10:38 AM
Peter Lawler
September 16th, 2009 | 11:26 am
“The postmodern, conservative view is that curiosity–being a natural capability–could hardly be merely a vice, but it isn’t the true foundation of even intellectual virtue.”
Is curiosity a “capability?” How are you using / defining the term “capability?”
September 16th, 2009 | 2:25 pm
I am capable of being curious (or afraid).
September 16th, 2009 | 4:41 pm
Didn’t H. Blumenberg say curiosity was at the heart of the modern project? In what sense, I’m not sure: there’s a lot of vagueness depending whether curiosity refers to the vice or includes natural wonder. But yes, Peter’s right that it could hardly be merely a vice. That’s at least true if we accept that all men by nature desire to know. One’s desire to know always faces some regulation: duties of state, for example. But there’s mental freedom even when doing something else. Curiosity is always there. What’s the virtue that goes with it? That early pomocon Augustine spoke of men as studiosus or curiosus. To be the former you shouldn’t pursue wisdom beyond your own capacity. Yet you might not know your capacity. That makes the choice to pursue wisdom almost stand between studiousness and curiosity.
September 16th, 2009 | 5:11 pm
Aquinas describes curiosity as a vice.
September 16th, 2009 | 7:08 pm
Josef Pieper has a good discussion of the distinction between curiositas and studiositas in his book The Cardinal Virtues, in the section on temperance. Studiositas iis the virtue that governs the natural desire to know; it’s part of a well ordered soul. Curiositas is the slothful, unrooted soul’s constantly errant desire for ever more novelty, ever more cognitive stimulus.
September 17th, 2009 | 1:17 pm
Paul, Great distinction–it divides the natural capability or desire into a virtue and a vice. Does the well ordered soul order the natural desire or does the proper focusing of the natural desire cause the well ordered soul?
September 17th, 2009 | 2:53 pm
The difficulty concerns “the proper focusing of the natural desire.” It’s hard to make rules for this, so the question is much more vexed than it might seem. Consider Thomas’s first example of curiosity: leaving obligatory study for something less profitable. What is obligatory may only come after the free choice of a state in life. Studiositas does not tell you what to study when your choice of study or even whether to study is free.
September 20th, 2009 | 9:19 am
[...] Curiosity Filed in General on Sep.20, 2009 I noted here that Stanley Fish has published a column suggesting that curiosity is a bad thing because it detracts from solemn contemplation of the infinite, that satisfying curiosity stokes human vanity, et cetera, et cetera, ad nauseum. Predictably, I suppose, the folk at First Things, the journal founded by the late Father Richard Neuhaus, are taking it seriously. [...]
September 21st, 2009 | 2:07 pm
[...] Peter Lawler at PomoCon: For Pascal, it’s nothing more than the vanity of beings in love with their own capabilities. It distracts us from the duties that should flow from love of God and each other. Curiosity can easily morph into love of diversity or losing oneself in the pursuit of endless mental diversions. Curiosity properly channeled, though, can lead us to think about who we are and what we’re supposed to do. But the idea that “there’s always more to know” can also lead us to conclude it’s never time to do. The postmodern, conservative view is that curiosity–being a natural capability–could hardly be merely a vice, but it isn’t the true foundation of even intellectual virtue. [...]
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