II · Archai 01 / 07
SPIRAL ARMS
Wonder
Aristotle says where wonder looked first: the moon, the sun, the stars, the beginning of the whole. A galaxy is its shape — and philosophy, says Plato, has no other beginning.
The hidden text
Μάλα γὰρ φιλοσόφου τοῦτο τὸ πάθος, τὸ θαυμάζειν· οὐ γὰρ ἄλλη ἀρχὴ φιλοσοφίας ἢ αὕτη. Διὰ γὰρ τὸ θαυμάζειν οἱ ἄνθρωποι καὶ νῦν καὶ τὸ πρῶτον ἤρξαντο φιλοσοφεῖν, ἐξ ἀρχῆς μὲν τὰ πρόχειρα τῶν ἀτόπων θαυμάσαντες, εἶτα κατὰ μικρὸν οὕτω προϊόντες καὶ περὶ τῶν μειζόνων διαπορήσαντες, οἷον περί τε τῶν τῆς σελήνης παθημάτων καὶ τῶν περὶ τὸν ἥλιον καὶ ἄστρα καὶ περὶ τῆς τοῦ παντὸς γενέσεως. In English, my rendering
This is the philosopher's feeling above all: to wonder. Philosophy has no other beginning. For it is through wonder that people begin to philosophize, now as at first — wondering first at the strange things that lie close at hand, then advancing little by little and finding difficulties in greater matters: the changes of the moon, the sun and the stars, and how the whole came to be.
Plato, Theaetetus 155d · Aristotle, Metaphysics 982b Public domain — ancient texts, 4th century BC
This is exactly what the sheet carries. The reader returns it letter for letter.
Measurements
- Words
- 66
- On the sheet
- 498 bytes
- Capacity
- 1070 bytes
- Fill
- 47%
- Line length
- 1.44 m
- Data rungs
- 2,140
- Paper
- A4 · 210 × 297 mm
Prints
Archival pigment print, signed and numbered. Choose a size:
