Curiosity
From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
-
"Curious" redirects here. For other uses, see Curious (disambiguation).
Curiosity is any natural inquisitive behaviour, evident by observation in many animal species, and is the emotional aspect of living beings that engenders exploration, investigation, and learning.
Contents |
[edit] Curiosity
In essence, "curiosity" is a term that describes an unknown number of behavioural and psychological mechanisms, which have the effect of impelling beings to seek information and interaction with their natural environment and with other beings in their vicinity.
[edit] Causes
Curiosity is most a natural instinct; curiousity confers a survival advantage to certain species, and can be found in their genomes (see Behavioural genetics).
[edit] Who is affected?
Curiosity is common to human beings at all ages; from infancy to old age, and is easy to observe in many other animal species. These include apes, cats, fish, reptiles, and insects; as well as many others. Many aspects of exploration are shared among all beings, as all known terrestrial beings share similar aspects: limited size, and a need to seek out food sources.
Strong curiosity is the main motivation of famous scientists. In fact, it is mainly curiosity that makes a human being an expert in a certain field of knowledge.
Many famous historical figures where affected strongly by curiosity, to explore and conquer, for example, Colombus, Balboa, Magellan, Coronado, Sir Francis Drake, etc. to name a few.
[edit] Abstract curiosity
Though humans are sometimes considered particularly very curious, they sometimes seem to miss the obvious when compared to other animals. What seems to happen is that human curiosity combined with the ability to think in an abstract way, lead to mimesis, fantasy and imagination - eventually leading to an especially human way of thinking ("human reason"), which is abstract and self aware, or conscious. This in turn allows most adult humans to rely heavily upon beliefs which they have learnt long before, but which might only be imagined to be correct. See Francis Bacon concerning "idols".
[edit] Morbid curiosity
A morbid curiosity is a compulsion, fixed with excitement and fear, to know about macabre topics, such as death and horrible violence (see also: snuff film). In a milder form, however, this can be understood as a cathartic form of behaviour or as something instinctive within humans. According to Aristotle, in his Poetics Ch 4 we even “enjoy contemplating the most precise images of things whose sight is painful to us”. (This aspect of our nature is often referred to as the 'Car Crash Syndrome' or 'Trainwreck Syndrome', derived from the notorious inability of passersby to ignore such accidents.)
