On the bottomless lake of firstness: conjectures on the synthetic power of consciousness

This essay focuses on the concept of consciousness in C. S. Peirce’s work, revealing how its ways of being are associated with the three Peircean phenomenological categories. In this article, I intend to reflect on the heuristic power of the mind, namely, its ability to bring about new ideas, which, within Peirce’s logic of inquiry, is called by the well-known term of abduction. The abductive logical step promotes a synthesis of signs that constitutes a logical structure capable of proposing a new mediation or representation of a new phenomenon. I make use of a metaphorical passage from Peirce (CP 7.547, undated) not only to give the title to this essay, but also to highlight the importance of the first category as a sort of synechistic envelopment of an unprecedented logical structure of signs that composes a new synthesis. Two continua intertwine themselves, namely, those of the first and third categories, to account for what appears as a fact of the world in the theater of secondness. The essay also seeks to bring to light the core realism of Peirce’s philosophy, the genetic aspect of this bottomless lake, through its cosmology, where the generalization of forms and the acquisition of habits of reality are the proper ground of his Objective Idealism. One of the heuristic aspect of the lake metaphor is a sort of invitation to extend the concept of synthesis from the realm of logical structures to that one of arts, which in this essay will remain as a suggestion for a further reflection.

Synchronizing the Logic of Inquiry with the Logic of Action: The Case of Urban Climate Policy

Policymakers often rely on scientific knowledge for making policy decisions, and many scientists aim to produce knowledge that is useful to policymakers. However, the logic of action (which guides policy) and the logic of inquiry (which guides research) do not always align. We introduce the term “logic synchronization” to characterize the degree to which the logic of policy action aligns with the logic of scientific inquiry. We use the case of urban climate policy to explore this dynamic using a purposive literature review. The framework presented here is helpful in identifying areas in which the logic of inquiry and the logic of action synchronize, creating the opportunity for both policy-relevant science and science-informed policy. It also reveals where the logics do not yet synchronize, which indicates where scientists and policy makers can productively focus their efforts. The framework introduced here can be both theoretically and practically useful for linking scientific knowledge to policy action.

Analyzing Interviews

Chapter 6 describes the process of analyzing interview transcripts, which involves a search for the patterns concealed within the complex material that these transcripts contain. Analyzing interview data involves a number of methodological strategies. These include immersing oneself in the findings; developing concepts and organizing the material conceptually; attending to non-relationships and contradictory findings; and applying the basic rules of the logic of inquiry, such as conducting a comparative analysis and examining the time order of events and responses to events. All these steps provide ways to impose order on messy material, which then increases the chances of making empirical discoveries and theoretical breakthroughs. The chapter provides a step-by-step consideration of how coding and categorizing can be used to make sense out of the material. By dividing the analytic process into separate concrete steps, analysis becomes more manageable, less intimidating, and more fun. This systematic approach also increases confidence in the findings, enhances their credibility, and raises the potential for making theoretical breakthroughs.

Inquiry-Based Science Teaching under Construction: Possibilities of Articulations Between Conceptual, Epistemic and Social Domains Within Scientific Knowledge in the Classroom

In this paper, we analyse how a class discursively constructed articulations between the conceptual, epistemic and social domains of scientific knowledge. The first-grade class studied biological aspects of an insect. For data collection and analysis, we use Ethnography in Education as logic of inquiry. Our results indicate that the use of instructional resources, organised around questions, generated different ways of articulation between the three domains, evidenced in the participants’ oral speech. The emphasis on the [epistemic+social] pair has given a more investigative character to the instructional context under construction. We also discuss implications for pedagogical practice and research in science education.

Studying the Over-Time Construction of Knowledge in Educational Settings: A Microethnographic Discourse Analysis Approach

This review presents theoretical underpinnings supporting microethnographic-discourse analytic (ME/DA) approaches to studying educational phenomena. The review is presented in two parts. Part 1 provides an analytic review of two seminal reviews of literature that frame theoretical and methodological developments of microethnography and functions language in classrooms with diverse learners. Part 2 presents two telling case studies that illustrate the logic-of-inquiry of (ME/DA) approaches. These telling case studies make transparent how theoretical considerations of cultural perspectives on education inform decisions regarding research methodology. Telling Case Study 1 makes transparent the logic-of-inquiry undertaken to illustrate how microanalyses of discourse and action among participants in a physics class provided an empirical grounding for identifying how different groups undertook a common task. This case study shows how ethnographically informed discourse analyses formed a foundation to theoretically identify social processes of knowledge construction. Telling Case Study 2 makes transparent multiple levels of analysis undertaken to examine ways that creative processes of interpretation of art were communicated and taken up in an art studio class across multiple cycles of activity. Taken together, these telling case studies provide evidence of how ME/DA provides a theoretically grounded logic-of-inquiry for investigating complex learning processes in different educational contexts.

From Analogical to Analytical Thinking and Back

This chapter shows the importance for teachers to enter into a truly reflexive activity and to make it the main aspect of their professional activity. The author describes ways teachers can regain control over the activity of thinking and adapt their modes of reasoning to educational situations by developing control over the transition from system 1 to system 2. The aim is to consider the conditions for developing decision-making procedures, both reflexive and collective, when faced with complex situations (particularly crises), based on a deliberation rooted in a logic of inquiry.