[peirce-l] Re: Pragmatic inquiry == "the love of learning"

[Gary Richmond]

Arnold, Jim, List, Thanks for your good responses especially as there hasn't been much yet to my proposing an inquiry into pragmatic inquiry (perhaps I posted too many Peirce quotations?) But given the near central importance of inquiry to pragmatism (note for example that in Peirce's Classification of the Sciences that theory of inquiry is included in the last division of semeiotic and so, in a sense, bridges the normative sciences and metaphysics--and, thus, prepares for all the sciences which follow) I sincerely hope that other listers will sound in on this theme at some point. I often find that your remarks, Arnold, include muted reference to your own experience in whatever area is being discussed (so they are not only theoretical) adding to their pertinence and value. For example, you wrote: AS: When Peirce decried the tendency for Universities to set themselves up as centres of teaching a research [. . . ] he clearly saw that the distinction between teaching and learning had much to do with the nature of Truth:  Truth is essntially the _task_ of bringing reality (of whatever grade) to light such that our reasoning about it can stand the test of becoming conduct.  Unfortunately, much of the anticipated conduct that informs the contemporary university student has to with careers, marriage, wealth, and so on. . . This last observation seems to me all too correct. University students are more interested in enhancing their "career options" than their critical thinking and reasoning abilities. Still, as you suggested, especially in co-operative learning situations real learning can still occur. In a very Peircean-realist spirit you wrote: AS:. . . it is the independence of the sunject-matter of what either the teacher or the learner may think about it, that makes learning a necessarily collective endeavour. But again, as Peirce commented, the first and really only "rule of reason" is "that in order to learn you must desire to learn" and it seems to me that fewer and fewer students do so desire to learn, while educational institutions do not frequently enough or sufficient create the conditions which would contribute to instilling that spirit of inquiring/learning together. Best, Gary Arnold Shepperson wrote: Jim, Gary, List   Great comments, responses, and remarks all round.  One of the great disappointments in my somewhat oddball academic career has been the experience of `teachers' who treat their work and their students as a sort of occupational hazard.  I have found that there is an enormous wellspring of willingness, both learn and to get on with the _work_ of learning, when both the `teacher' and the `learner' (not post-modernist scare-quotes, BTW) find an area of new study in common.  My experience was with the whole logical exposition of welfare economics (mentioned in a thread a few months back), which, although it's been around for half a centrury or more, has indicated that findings like Kenneth Arrow's are more than just a formal curiosity.   To get the point, though: Peirce would understand, I believe, that it is the independence of the sunject-matter of what either the teacher or the learner may think about it, that makes learning a necessarily collective endeavour.  When one faces a class that has been brought up to understand learning as mere means to an end (getting a job, getting a wife or husband, making a zillion Dollars, etc), then the teacher can only engage the students' interest in the subject-matter if the latter can demonstrably be shown to accomplish those kinds of ends.  When Peirce decried the tendency for Universities to set themselves up as centres of teaching a research (_Reasoning and the Logic of Things_), he clearly saw that the distinction between teaching and learning had much to do with the nature of Truth:  Truth is essntially the _task_ of bringing reality (of whatever grade) to light such that our reasoning about it can stand the test of becoming conduct.  Unfortunately, much of the anticipated conduct that informs the contemporary university student has to with careers, marriage, wealth, and so on, and the `teacher' who can't make these wishes come true is doomed to find another career (or, as I have found to my dismay, a dyed-in-the-wool cynicism about learning in general).   Enough for now.  At least the few students I was able to work with in a form of co-operative learning, all got distinctions for their dissertations!   Cheers   Arnold Shepperson --- Message from peirce-l forum to subscriber [EMAIL PROTECTED] --- Message from peirce-l forum to subscriber archive@mail-archive.com