Astonishment and Science

Science can reveal or conceal the breathtaking wonders of creation. On one hand, knowledge of the natural world can open us up to greater love for the Creator, give us the means of more neighborly care, and fill us with ever-deepening astonishment. On the other hand, knowledge feeding an insatiable hunger for epistemic mastery can become a means of idolatry, hubris, and damage. Crucial to world-respecting science is the role of wonder: curiosity, perplexity, and astonishment. In this volume, philosopher William Desmond explores the relation of the different modes of wonder to modern science. Responding to his thought are twelve thinkers across the domains of science, theology, philosophy, law, poetry, medicine, sociology, and art restoration.

Introduction
--Paul Tyson
The Dearth of Astonishment: On Curiosity, Scientism, and Thinking as Negativity
--William Desmond
Preparing to Paint the Virgin's Robe
--Spike Bucklow
Cultivating Wonder
--Steven Knepper
The Astonishment of Philosophy: William Desmond and Isabelle Stengers
--Simone Kotva
Astonishment and the Social Sciences
--Paul Tyson
Curiosity, Perplexity, and Astonishment in the Natural Sciences
--Andrew Davison
Scientism as the Dearth of the Nothing
--Richard J. Colledge
The Determinations of Medicine and the Too-Muchness of Being
--Jeffrey Bishop
Attending to Infinitude: Law as in-between the Overdeterminate and Practical Judgment
--Jonathan Horton
Life's Wonder
--Simon Oliver
Being in Control
--Michael Hanby
Wondering about the Science/Scientism Distinction
--D. C. Schindler
Basil and Desmond on Wonder and the Astonishing Return of Christian Metaphysics
--Isidoros C. Katsos
The Children of Wonder: On Scientism and Its Changelings
--William Desmond