Human beings want to understand the world and to know the truth for there are so many things we have not figured out. We wonder about many things including the workings of the universe, the mystery of human experience, and the existence of a Supreme Being. We wonder about things that puzzle us. Plato, one of the best philosophers who ever lived, claimed that "philosophy begins in wonder". Wonder is the beginning for it stimulates us to venture into philosophy. It is beyond mere curiosity as curiosity is usually directed to a single, fleeting, and momentary object that captures our interest. We are curios how a new gadget works, but we may wonder whether one can live without the new gadget. Our wondering here is directed toward analogy and the relationships of things. We are concerned beyond the information we can readily get about a new gadget. We are wondering about a more enduring question.
The proper exercise of our rational faculty allows us to answer our questions and overcome our ignorance. The discipline itself does not offer definite answers to philosophical questions because it is in the nature of such questions that they do not have a definite answer. However, in doing philosophy, in becoming actively engaged in the intellectual pursuit of truth, our knowledge of the world can be improved, our mind can be freed from narrow views, and we can get to experience the best sort of existence. Our attempts to answer philosophical questions provide us with opportunities to arrive at good answers that make us understand great things or enable us to see our life as meaningful. It becomes a search for knowledge that compels us to seek the truth because it matters to us personally. The answers we find greatly affect our life.