[Inquiry] Re: Introduction to Inquiry Driven Systems

[Jon Awbrey]

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INT.  Note 19

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2.1.  The Pragmatic Approach to Inquiry (concl.)

Inquiry is a form of reasoning process, in effect, a particular
way of conducting thought, and thus it can be said to institute
a specialized manner, style, or turn of thinking.  Philosophers
of the school that is commonly called "pragmatic" hold that all
thought takes place in signs, where "sign" is the word they use
for the broadest conceivable variety of characters, expressions,
formulae, messages, signals, texts, ..., that might be imagined.
Indeed, even intellectual concepts and mental ideas are held to
be a special class of signs, corresponding to internal states
of the thinking agent that both issue in and result from the
interpretation of external signs.

The subsumption of inquiry within reasoning in general and the inclusion
of thinking within the class of sign processes allows us to approach the
subject of inquiry from two different perspectives:

1.  The "syllogistic" approach treats inquiry as a logical species.

2.  The "sign-theoretic" approach views inquiry as taking place
    within a more general setting of sign processes.

I would to wrap up this preliminary survey of the inquiry domain
by introducing a classic example of an everyday inquiry process,
an example that I will take as canonical in the sequel, turning
it around and viewing it from several different angles as a way
to illustrate many generic aspects of the full inquiry process.
In the process of doing this I will continue to introduce an
array of basic terms and a host of critical issues that we
will need to pick up and tackle in the larger discussion
of inquiry.  Here is John Dewey's "Sign of Rain" story:

| A man is walking on a warm day.
| The sky was clear the last time
| he observed it;  but presently he
| notes, while occupied primarily with
| other things, that the air is cooler.
| It occurs to him that it is probably
| going to rain;  looking up, he sees
| a dark cloud between him and the sun,
| and he then quickens his steps.  What,
| if anything, in such a situation can
| be called thought?  Neither the act of
| walking nor the noting of the cold is
| a thought.  Walking is one direction of
| activity;  looking and noting are other
| modes of activity.  The likelihood that
| it will rain is, however, something
| 'suggested'.  The pedestrian 'feels'
| the cold;  he 'thinks of' clouds
| and a coming shower.
|
| John Dewey, 'How We Think', pages 6-7.

I now undertake a detailed study of the pragmatic theory of inquiry,
treating its positive features in gradually increasing depth.  Even
though they can contribute but partial perspectives to the complete
account, I regard it as wise to begin with the syllogistic and the
sign-theoretic outlooks to get a foothold on the inquiry domain.

Jon Awbrey

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