A Dialogue on Inquiry

Abstract

I seek to demonstrate how Peirce’s ‘pragmatic maxim’ can be used to inform a model of inquiry (and thus of thought) that extends knowledge seeking beyond deterministic goals and end-results. My hope is that recognizing the essential open-endedness of the pragmatic conceptions of understanding, truth, reality and cognition, can be used to foster a discourse that places thought and reflectiveness itself (that is apart from any ulterior motivations) in a central role. In the archaic form of a fictional dialogue, I present Peirce’s “3 grades of clearness” as a ‘rough and ready’ pedagogical model that displays these values.