Of a very different sort is that tuning which made thinking decide to ask in a new way the traditional question of what being is, in so far as it is, and thus to begin a new era of philosophy. In this Meditations Descartes does not ask only, and does not ask first, τί τὸ ὄν, what being is, in so far as it is. Descartes asks what that being is that is true being in the sense of the ens certum. For Descartes, the essence of certitudo has changed in the meanwhile, for in the Middle Ages certitudo does not signify certainty but the fixed delimitation of a being in that which it is. Certitudo here is still synonymous with essentia. On the other hand, for Descartes that which is true is measured in another way. For him doubt becomes that tuning in which the attunement [structure of determination] vibrates to the ens certum, i.e. being in certainty. Certitudo becomes a fixing of the ens qua ens which results in the unquestionability of the cogito (ergo) sum for man's ego. Thereby, the ego becomes the distinctive sub-jectum and thus the nature of man for the first time enters the realm of subjectivity in the sense of the ego. Out of the attunement to this certitudo the language of Descartes obtains the determination of a clare et distincte percipere. The tuning of doubt is the positive acquiescence in certainty. Henceforth, certainty becomes the determining form of truth. The tuning of confidence to the absolute certainty of knowledge which is attainable at all times is πάθος and thus the ἀρχή, the beginning of modern philosophy.
Θαυμα and θαυμαζειν in ancient greek had a different meaning. I have heard this in an interview with Emanuele Severino, known italian philosopher, who said that it is not astonishment, not even wonder or curiosity, but it is the "terror"... there is a deep existential connotation to the experience of θαυμαζειν that leads to philosophizing as it was intended....
