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Oedipus, Hermes, Janus

Abrahamsson, Christian LU (2010) Annual Meeting of the Association of American Geographers, 2010
Abstract
This paper is part of a larger project that aims to study the relation between practice and theory in the works of three thinkers: John Dewey, Gregory Bateson and Félix Guattari. These thinkers share an understanding of the primary importance of the relation between theory and practice. Also their philosophical grammar is inherently spatial with concepts such as transversality, rhizome, ritornello, ecologies of mind and the double-bind. In this paper I will focus on the importance of the notion of inquiry in the pragmatic philosophy of John Dewey. The paper will take Dewey's laboratory school at the University of Chicago as its point of departure. The central aim of the Lab School was to actualize Dewey's understanding of inquiry in an... (More)
This paper is part of a larger project that aims to study the relation between practice and theory in the works of three thinkers: John Dewey, Gregory Bateson and Félix Guattari. These thinkers share an understanding of the primary importance of the relation between theory and practice. Also their philosophical grammar is inherently spatial with concepts such as transversality, rhizome, ritornello, ecologies of mind and the double-bind. In this paper I will focus on the importance of the notion of inquiry in the pragmatic philosophy of John Dewey. The paper will take Dewey's laboratory school at the University of Chicago as its point of departure. The central aim of the Lab School was to actualize Dewey's understanding of inquiry in an experimental setting. I argue that the notion of inquiry offers a potentially productive way of understanding the temporalities and spatialities that unfolds between practice and theory. For Dewey this relation is shaped by the creativity of action and connected to a situation, by definition spatially and temporally bounded. Of particular relevance in this paper is Dewey's focus on the radical openness of the relation between theory and practice, the question of where thought takes place (of how we think), and the immanent critique of the idea of simple location his conceptualization of inquiry entails. I will end the paper with a tentative discussion concerning the notion of experimentation in the social sciences. (Less)
Please use this url to cite or link to this publication:
author
publishing date
type
Contribution to conference
publication status
unpublished
subject
keywords
John Dewey, experiment, inquiry, theory, practice, thought, openess
conference name
Annual Meeting of the Association of American Geographers, 2010
conference location
Washington, DC, United States
conference dates
2010-04-14 - 2010-04-18
language
English
LU publication?
no
id
8f63e560-f204-4c28-b339-494c9df3b93c (old id 2543312)
alternative location
http://meridian.aag.org/callforpapers/program/AbstractDetail.cfm?AbstractID=27584
date added to LUP
2016-04-04 14:34:02
date last changed
2018-11-21 21:21:02
@misc{8f63e560-f204-4c28-b339-494c9df3b93c,
  abstract     = {{This paper is part of a larger project that aims to study the relation between practice and theory in the works of three thinkers: John Dewey, Gregory Bateson and Félix Guattari. These thinkers share an understanding of the primary importance of the relation between theory and practice. Also their philosophical grammar is inherently spatial with concepts such as transversality, rhizome, ritornello, ecologies of mind and the double-bind. In this paper I will focus on the importance of the notion of inquiry in the pragmatic philosophy of John Dewey. The paper will take Dewey's laboratory school at the University of Chicago as its point of departure. The central aim of the Lab School was to actualize Dewey's understanding of inquiry in an experimental setting. I argue that the notion of inquiry offers a potentially productive way of understanding the temporalities and spatialities that unfolds between practice and theory. For Dewey this relation is shaped by the creativity of action and connected to a situation, by definition spatially and temporally bounded. Of particular relevance in this paper is Dewey's focus on the radical openness of the relation between theory and practice, the question of where thought takes place (of how we think), and the immanent critique of the idea of simple location his conceptualization of inquiry entails. I will end the paper with a tentative discussion concerning the notion of experimentation in the social sciences.}},
  author       = {{Abrahamsson, Christian}},
  keywords     = {{John Dewey; experiment; inquiry; theory; practice; thought; openess}},
  language     = {{eng}},
  title        = {{Oedipus, Hermes, Janus}},
  url          = {{http://meridian.aag.org/callforpapers/program/AbstractDetail.cfm?AbstractID=27584}},
  year         = {{2010}},
}