I think that it might be helpful to explore the meanings of: Community of inquiry and Community of interpretation
I think that these are very close if not the same. The aim of inquiry in pragmatism is no longer knowledge in the mechanical sense – logic-mathematical, where there are no real qualitative differences or advances in HOW we understand reality. The logico-mathematical model of the Logical Positivists saw each advance in knowledge as a generalization over the previous knowledge. This was codified as the Correspondence Principle – but understood alternatively as 'advance as generalization' versus 'advance as a qualitative improvement in our understanding' (viz the latter being qualitatively better was logic-mathematically incommensurable with the former). So the eventual end of the community of inquiry would be the fully agreed upon understanding – or interpretation – of reality. It is crucial that the advance is qualitative, since as Dewey emphasized, the search/inquiry was for the 'better' understanding of 'how we should live' and that was an advance in an understanding of the good. Real, meaningful knowledge in the pragmatist program was always 'potentially beneficial' to someone's life, and for Dewey potentially beneficial in 'the construction of the good.' (Viz We being the little beavers bringing forth the large structures of the universe.) T P.S. Please avoid trying to understand the pragmatist's inquiry in terms of the Mechanical Philosophy of time/space invariant, deterministic laws. Pragmatism (and quantum theory for that matter) begins with the acceptance (James) or experimental proof that we have (necessarily) free choice (viz because there are multiple, complementary ways to understand (successfully) the universe. And the ways develop and emerge through the process. =============================================================== On Nov 1, 2011, at 2:58 AM, John Quay wrote: Hi Peirce-listers Just wondering if anyone can help me. The phrase "community of inquiry" is often attributed to Peirce and yet I cannot find any instance of his actually using this phrase. Sources of this attribution can be drawn to Matthew Lipman (amongst others), associated with his work in Philosophy for Children (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Matthew_Lipman) Peirce definitely speaks often of the importance of community and of inquiry, but does not tend to use these words in close association. I was wondering if anyone knew of a passage (or passages) in Peirce's work that would speak clearly to the association between community and inquiry? I understand that Peirce draws a close connection between notions of community and scientific or pragmatic truth, for example when he states that “the opinion which is fated to be ultimately agreed to by all who investigate, is what we mean by the truth” (Peirce, 1878, p. 299, CP 5.407). But is this the main source of the phrase "community of inquiry"? Any help appreciated. Kind regards -- John Quay, PhD Lecturer Melbourne Graduate School of Education 234 Queensberry Street The University of Melbourne VIC, 3010, Australia T: +61 3 8344 8533 / M: 0438 048 955 E: jq...@unimelb.edu.au http://www.edfac.unimelb.edu.au/profile/John.Quay www.education.unimelb.edu.au CRICO Provider code 00116K --------------------------------------------------------------------------------- You are receiving this message because you are subscribed to the PEIRCE-L listserv. To remove yourself from this list, send a message to lists...@listserv.iupui.edu with the line "SIGNOFF PEIRCE-L" in the body of the message. To post a message to the list, send it to PEIRCE-L@LISTSERV.IUPUI.EDU --------------------------------------------------------------------------------- You are receiving this message because you are subscribed to the PEIRCE-L listserv. To remove yourself from this list, send a message to lists...@listserv.iupui.edu with the line "SIGNOFF PEIRCE-L" in the body of the message. To post a message to the list, send it to PEIRCE-L@LISTSERV.IUPUI.EDU
