Inquiry as Emergence: Product and Contributor
Paul Grobstein
Emergence working Group (with appreciation)
12 December 2007
| overview| no unwobbling pivots | story | intersubjectivity | inquiry and emergence |
Story ... and its Usefulness
(loop 2) |
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Noticing the story
- There is a crack between unconscious and story just as there is between observations and summary of observations
- The crack between unconscious and story can be used to conceive of things that have not yet existed, just as that between observations and summary can bring new things into existence.
- The crack between observations and summaries also allows for creativity, for bringing new things into existence (which would help to explain why pure empiricism/reductionism doesn't work).
On to Story
- Story is as much a part of science/"empirical inquiry" as observations
- By generating/testing stories, one generates new possibilities
- Valuable metadisciplinary work includes
- Comparing/constrasting conflicting stories without quickly dismissing any
- Recognizing/negating existing presumptions to see what will happen
- Bringing new kinds of observations into a discipline to see if the existing frameworks can handle them ... or not
- Inquiry involves the somewhat unpredictable (and hence not fully "defensible") creation of new understandings based on patterns perceived to date done in order to motivate new inquiries (rather than the determinate uncovering of properties and rules than will remain inviolate and add progressively to an asymptotic approach to "Truth" or "Reality")
On to story sharing, intersubjectivity, culture ...
