[SydPhil] Reminder — Brandon Yip at Notre Dame Australia

[Timothy Smartt]

The Institute for Ethics & Society at The University of Notre Dame Australia is pleased to host a talk from Dr Brandon Yip (Singapore Management University) on Thursday 5 March, 3:30pm-5:00pm (Sydney time).

The talk will be held in person on UNDA’s Sydney campus, but remote participation is also available.

All welcome.


Title: Wonder Upon Wonder

Abstract: I propose a framework for wonder that accounts for its heterogeneity and explains and clarifies disputes about the ethics of wonder. The various species of wonder are unified as responses to a recurrent practical situation: that of recognising that our cognitive structures require alteration in order to cognitively accommodate some object. This recognition is momentous in its implications for the self, yet its evaluative implications can be indeterminate. Its momentousness and ambivalence provoke a variety of secondary appraisals and coping responses that are built up around wonder’s core appraisal. The heterogeneity of wonder therefore reflects the diversity of ways human beings grapple with the limits of understanding and the possibilities of transformation. The ethical drama of negotiating one’s relationship with the wonderful object explains how questions about the ethics of wonder emerge.


In person participation: Moorgate Room, 10 Grafton St, Chippendale, The University of Notre Dame Australia

Online participation: please email Tim Smartt (timothy.smartt at nd.edu.au<mailto:timothy.smartt at nd.edu.au>) for Microsoft Teams link.

The seminar is part of the 2026 Notre Dame Ethics + Epistemology Talks — a series of talks exploring the connections between ethics and epistemology.

Inquiries: Tim Smartt (timothy.smartt at nd.edu.au<mailto:timothy.smartt at nd.edu.au>)

Dr Tim Smartt
Senior Research Fellow
Institute for Ethics & Society
University of Notre Dame Australia, Sydney

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