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 
([email protected]<mailto:[email protected]>) 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 
([email protected]<mailto:[email protected]>)



Dr Tim Smartt

Senior Research Fellow

Institute for Ethics & Society

University of Notre Dame Australia, Sydney

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