Community Of Inquirers Research Articles

Introduction: An International Community of Inquirers

Introduction: An International Community of Inquirers

Sociology without Philosophy? The Case of Giddens's Structuration Theory

Specification of an appropriate relationship, or division of labor, between sociology and philosophy, remains a sensitive issue. Anthony Giddens offers a distinctive variant in his concern, in structuration theory, to develop an ontology of the social without participating in epistemological debate and without articulating and justifying a normative theory (whether a philosophical anthropology or a political philosophy). Both omissions impair the wider reception of structuration theory. The second is the more serious, however, insofar as the postempiricist community of inquirers may make a virtue of the ethical and political factors that inform social science, but it does not yet have any settled means of assessing different, and contesting, values; even if it did, it could not invent Giddens's position for him. There are signs that Giddens now recognizes the need to formulate and justify models of the good society and of the actualized self.

A Rejoinder to Green, Case, Daniels, LaBar, and Franklin

The point, of course, has to do with interpretive frame. I suppose, too, the point has to do with the ways in which imaginative forms can be addressed within the social studies or any other use of the social sciences in education. The issue is not any longer the tension between qualitative and quantitative. It has to do with vantage point, metaphor, chosen mode of discourse, and community of inquirers. Given the increased awareness of the insufficiencies of positivistic approaches, with their questionable reliance on outdated and value-free protocols, I do not believe there is an either/or when it comes to the treatment of such themes

The Status of Children's Intellectual Rights

It is suggested that U.S. public education systematically denies children's intellectual rights, that the kinds of educational experiences to which they are subjected discourage curiosity, creativity, and active participatory (dialogic) learning, and that children are thereby being deprived of the right to be “autonomous inquirers in the community of inquirers.” In the case of lower status children there is, beyond suppression of desirable intellectual outcomes, the active promotion of adverse ones. More significantly for societal concerns, however, it seems apparent that for all children public schooling sanctions a conforming style of self‐presentation and a learning environment which does not and can not develop the kinds of competencies required of adults in a free society. Problems and impediments in the way of implementing change—educational reform focused on education—are noted.

Inquiry as a transcendental activity

We examine the notion of inquiry and argue that philosophic inquiry is a transcendental activity. Activities, viewed as conforming to intelligible canons, applying to appropriate contexts, and directed to specifiable ends, are contrasted with their empirical descriptions. Inquiry, characterized as an internalized, continuous activity directed to an intrinsic end, and fundamentally presupposed by other activities, is considered at the levels of (1) science, (2) philosophy and (3) transcendental philosophy. We argue that (2) is a transcendental activity which determines non‐empirical concepts and is presupposed by (1). Alternative philosophic frameworks are grounded on hypothetical canons conceived by intelligence itself, which imply interpretations of objectivity and universality claiming validity for the community of inquirers, but they can always be rejected. We consider the possibility of categorical canons operating as second‐order rules necessarily presupposed for the formulation of alternative philos...