Work Text:
In the last line of "When I Heard the Learn'd Astronomer," the speaker realizes that the Astronomer's speech, all the precise and measured things, was nothing compared to the beauty of the stars. All the understanding in the world can drain the wonder out of marvelous things and make them dull and uninteresting, but with quiet contemplation, these things that hold so much wonder can be understood again, even after the physical understanding is known.
This view compares very well with Russell's work in that the most beautiful things, he says, are those which do not have answers.
My own question for the philosopher. Why does the cat have whiskers?
A zoologist would answer, saying that their function is to measure distances close to the face and aid in navigating in dark environments, then be done with the question. There is the answer, is that not enough?
But then I would ask another question, a more true wording of my original. Why does the cat have whiskers and not some other mechanism for the purpose; why must it have whiskers in the first place, why not use echolocation, why can it not have perfect vision, and why does it hunt at night if it cannot always see well?
The zoologist would have no adequate answer to my many questions, simply repeating the facts of biology and physics, eventually asking me why none of his answers are good enough.
I would then ask a philosopher who is more experienced than I, a sage of tale, my same question. Why does the cat have whiskers?
He would then ponder with me. We, two together, would spend many a day and hour wondering and debating this question, until we come to the only sure answer: because. We would go with no more knowledge than we came, but with a greater understanding of ourselves, each other, and the concept of "cat." And in the non-answer, I would go home, pet my cat's muzzle and marvel at the hairs on her face, knowing their function, not understanding their reason, and being more awed than before with the beauty of nature.
I, like the narrator, now know a fair bit of the how and why, but also like him, I can get bogged down by "the charts and diagrams" of science and must sometimes simply "[look] up in perfect silence at the stars" and wonder.
This, the only answer to the only question in philosophy, brings more beauty than all of the sciences combined: Why? Because.