Jon AwbreyDec 30, 2022

In the Way of Inquiry • Recircus
• https://inquiryintoinquiry.com/2023/01/06/in-the-way-of-inquiry-recircus-a/

❝I must lie down where all the ladders start
In the foul rag and bone shop of the heart.❞

— W.B. #Yeats
• https://web.archive.org/web/20200402124816/https://www.web-books.com/Classics/Poetry/Anthology/Yeats/Circus.htm

I have in mind circling back to a point in my project on #InquiryDrivenSystems, namely, the chapter addressing various Obstacles to the Project.

Overview
• https://oeis.org/wiki/Inquiry_Driven_Systems_%E2%80%A2_Overview

Obstacles
• https://oeis.org/wiki/Inquiry_Driven_Systems_%E2%80%A2_Part_5#Obstacles

#Peirce #Inquiry #InquiryIntoInquiry
#Semiotics #Semeiotics #SignRelations

In the Way of Inquiry • Recircus

I must lie down where all the ladders start In the foul rag and bone shop of the heart. — W.B. Yeats I have in mind circling back to a point in my project on Inquiry Driven Systems, namely,&n…

Inquiry Into Inquiry
Show threadJon AwbreyDec 31, 2022

In the Way of Inquiry • Obstacles 1
• https://inquiryintoinquiry.com/2023/01/07/in-the-way-of-inquiry-obstacles-2/

❝Upon this first, and in one sense this sole, rule of reason, that in order to learn you must desire to learn, and in so desiring not be satisfied with what you already incline to think, there follows one corollary which itself deserves to be inscribed upon every wall of the city of philosophy:

❝Do not block the way of inquiry.❞

C.S. #Peirce, Collected Papers, CP 1.135–136.
From an unpaginated ms. “F.R.L.”, c. 1899.

#Inquiry

In the Way of Inquiry • Obstacles

Inquiry Into Inquiry
Show threadJon AwbreyJan 4, 2023

In the Way of Inquiry • Obstacles 2
• https://inquiryintoinquiry.com/2023/01/07/in-the-way-of-inquiry-obstacles-2/

Often the biggest obstacle to learning more is the need to feel one already knows. And yet there are things a person knows, at least, in comparison to other things, and it makes sense to use what one already knows best in order to learn what one needs to know better. The question is, how does one know which is which? What test can tell what is known so well it can be trusted in learning what is not?

#Peirce #Inquiry #Uncertainty

In the Way of Inquiry • Obstacles

Inquiry Into Inquiry
Show threadJon AwbreyJan 4, 2023

In the Way of Inquiry • Obstacles 3
• https://inquiryintoinquiry.com/2023/01/07/in-the-way-of-inquiry-obstacles-2/

One way to test a supposed knowledge is to try to formulate it in such a way that it can be taught to other people. A related test, harder in some ways but easier in others, is to try to formalize it so completely that even a computer could go through the motions that are supposed to be definitive of its practice.

#Peirce #Inquiry #InquiryIntoInquiry
#Semiotics #Semeiotics #SignRelations

In the Way of Inquiry • Obstacles

Inquiry Into Inquiry
Show threadJon AwbreyJan 5, 2023

In the Way of Inquiry • Obstacles 4
• https://inquiryintoinquiry.com/2023/01/07/in-the-way-of-inquiry-obstacles-2/

Both ways of testing a supposition of knowledge depend on putting knowledge in forms which can be communicated or transported from one medium or system of interpretation to another. Knowledge already in a concrete form takes no more than a simple reformation or transformation, otherwise it takes a more radical metamorphosis, from a wholly disorganized condition to the first inklings of a portable or sharable form.

#Peirce #Inquiry

In the Way of Inquiry • Obstacles

Inquiry Into Inquiry
Show threadJon AwbreyJan 8, 2023

In the Way of Inquiry • Initial Unpleasantness 1
• https://inquiryintoinquiry.com/2023/01/08/in-the-way-of-inquiry-initial-unpleasantness-2/

Clouds and thunder:
The image of Difficulty at the Beginning.
Thus the superior man
Brings order out of confusion.

— I Ching ䷂ Hexagram 3

Inquiry begins in doubt, a debit of certainty and a drought of information, never a pleasant condition to acknowledge, and one of the primary obstacles to inquiry may be reckoned as owing to the onus one naturally feels on owning up to that debt.

#Peirce #Inquiry #InquiryIntoInquiry

In the Way of Inquiry • Initial Unpleasantness

Inquiry Into Inquiry
Show threadJon AwbreyJan 8, 2023

In the Way of Inquiry • Initial Unpleasantness 2
• https://inquiryintoinquiry.com/2023/01/08/in-the-way-of-inquiry-initial-unpleasantness-2/

Human nature far prefers to revel in the positive features of whatever scientific knowledge it already possesses and the mind defers as long as possible the revolt it feels arising on facing the uncertainties that still persist, the “nots” and “not yets” it cannot as yet and ought not deny.

Reference —

I Ching, or Book of Changes, R. Wilhelm and C.F. Baynes (trans.), Foreword by C.G. Jung, Princeton, 1950, 1961, 1967.

In the Way of Inquiry • Initial Unpleasantness

Inquiry Into Inquiry
Show threadJon AwbreyJan 11, 2023

In the Way of Inquiry • Justification Trap 1
• https://inquiryintoinquiry.com/2023/01/10/in-the-way-of-inquiry-justification-trap-2/

There is a particular type of “justification trap” a person can fall into, of trying to prove the scientific method by solely deductive means, that is, of trying to show the scientific method is a good method by starting from the simplest possible axioms, principles everyone would accept, about what is good.

#Peirce #Inquiry #InquiryIntoInquiry #InquiryDrivenSystems
#Logic #Abduction #Deduction #Induction #ScientificMethod

In the Way of Inquiry • Justification Trap

Inquiry Into Inquiry
Show threadJon Awbrey

In the Way of Inquiry • Justification Trap 2
• https://inquiryintoinquiry.com/2023/01/10/in-the-way-of-inquiry-justification-trap-2/

Often this happens, in spite of the fact one really knows better, simply in the process of arranging one's thoughts in a rational order, say, from the most elementary and independent to the most complex and derivative, as if for the sake of a logical and summary exposition.

#Peirce #Inquiry #InquiryIntoInquiry #InquiryDrivenSystems
#Logic #Abduction #Deduction #Induction #ScientificMethod

In the Way of Inquiry • Justification Trap

Inquiry Into Inquiry
Jan 12, 2023 at 1:24pmWeb
Show threadJon AwbreyJan 12, 2023

In the Way of Inquiry • Justification Trap 3
• https://inquiryintoinquiry.com/2023/01/10/in-the-way-of-inquiry-justification-trap-2/

But when does that rearrangement cease to be a rational reconstruction and start to become a destructive rationalization, a distortion of the genuine article, and a falsification of the authentic inquiry it attempts to recount?

#Peirce #Inquiry #InquiryIntoInquiry #InquiryDrivenSystems
#Logic #Abduction #Deduction #Induction #ScientificMethod

In the Way of Inquiry • Justification Trap

Inquiry Into Inquiry
Show threadJon AwbreyJan 12, 2023

In the Way of Inquiry • Justification Trap 4
• https://inquiryintoinquiry.com/2023/01/10/in-the-way-of-inquiry-justification-trap-2/

Sometimes people express their recognition of this trap and their appreciation of the factor it takes to escape it by saying there is really no such thing as the scientific method, that the very term “scientific method” is a misnomer and does not refer to any kind of method at all.

#Peirce #Inquiry #InquiryIntoInquiry #InquiryDrivenSystems
#Logic #Abduction #Deduction #Induction #ScientificMethod

In the Way of Inquiry • Justification Trap

Inquiry Into Inquiry
Show threadJon AwbreyJan 12, 2023

In the Way of Inquiry • Justification Trap 5
• https://inquiryintoinquiry.com/2023/01/10/in-the-way-of-inquiry-justification-trap-2/

As they see it the development of knowledge cannot be reduced to any fixed method because it involves in an essential way such a large component of non-methodical activities. If one's idea of what counts as method is fixed on the ideal of a deductive procedure then it's no surprise one draws that conclusion.

#Peirce #Inquiry #InquiryIntoInquiry #InquiryDrivenSystems
#Logic #Abduction #Deduction #Induction #ScientificMethod

In the Way of Inquiry • Justification Trap

Inquiry Into Inquiry
Show threadJon AwbreyJan 12, 2023

In the Way of Inquiry • Formal Apology 1
• https://inquiryintoinquiry.com/2023/01/12/in-the-way-of-inquiry-formal-apology-2/

Using “form” in the sense of “abstract structure”, the focus of my interest in this investigation is limited to the formal properties of the inquiry process. Among its chief constituents are numbered all the thinking and unthinking processes supporting the ability to learn and to reason.

#Peirce #Inquiry #InquiryIntoInquiry #InquiryDrivenSystems
#Abstraction #Analogy #Form #Matter #Aristotle #DeAnima

In the Way of Inquiry • Formal Apology

Inquiry Into Inquiry
Show threadJon AwbreyJan 12, 2023

In the Way of Inquiry • Formal Apology 2
• https://inquiryintoinquiry.com/2023/01/12/in-the-way-of-inquiry-formal-apology-2/

This “formal apology”, the apologetics of declaring a decidedly formal intent, will be used on numerous occasions to beg off a host of material difficulties and thus avoid the perceived necessity of meeting a multitude of conventional controversies.

#Peirce #Inquiry #InquiryIntoInquiry #InquiryDrivenSystems
#Abstraction #Analogy #Form #Matter #Aristotle #DeAnima

In the Way of Inquiry • Formal Apology

Inquiry Into Inquiry
Show threadJon AwbreyJan 12, 2023

In the Way of Inquiry • Formal Apology 3
• https://inquiryintoinquiry.com/2023/01/12/in-the-way-of-inquiry-formal-apology-2/

Category Double-Takes

The first use of the formal apology is to rehabilitate certain classes of associations between concepts otherwise marked as category mistakes. The conversion is achieved by flipping from one side of the concept's dual aspect to the other as the context demands. Thus it is possible to reform the characters of category mistakes in the manner of categorical “retakes” or “double-takes”.

#Peirce #Inquiry #Form

In the Way of Inquiry • Formal Apology

Inquiry Into Inquiry
Show threadJon AwbreyJan 13, 2023

In the Way of Inquiry • Formal Apology 4
• https://inquiryintoinquiry.com/2023/01/12/in-the-way-of-inquiry-formal-apology-2/

Conceptual Extensions

The second use of the formal apology is to permit the tentative extension of concepts to novel areas, giving them experimental trial beyond the cases and domains where their use is already established in the precedents of accustomed habit and successful application.

#Peirce #Inquiry #InquiryIntoInquiry #InquiryDrivenSystems
#Abstraction #Analogy #Form #Matter #Aristotle #Paradigms

In the Way of Inquiry • Formal Apology

Inquiry Into Inquiry
Show threadJon AwbreyJan 13, 2023

In the Way of Inquiry • Formal Apology 5
• https://inquiryintoinquiry.com/2023/01/12/in-the-way-of-inquiry-formal-apology-2/

Conceptual Extensions

This works to dispel the “in principle” objection that any category distinction puts a prior constraint on the recognition of similar structure between materially dissimilar domains. It leaves the issue a matter to be settled by post hoc judgment, a matter of what fits best “in practice”.

#Peirce #Inquiry #InquiryIntoInquiry #InquiryDrivenSystems
#Abstraction #Analogy #Form #Matter #Aristotle #Pragmatics

In the Way of Inquiry • Formal Apology

Inquiry Into Inquiry
Show threadJon AwbreyJan 14, 2023

In the Way of Inquiry • Formal Apology 6
• https://inquiryintoinquiry.com/2023/01/12/in-the-way-of-inquiry-formal-apology-2/

Explosional Recombinations

Another obstacle to inquiry is posed by the combinatorial explosion of questions arising in complex cases. The embarrassment of riches found here is deceptively deadly to the ends of inquiry in the very measure it appears so productive at first.

#Peirce #Inquiry #InquiryIntoInquiry #InquiryDrivenSystems
#Abstraction #Form #Isomorphism #Combinatorics #Complexity

In the Way of Inquiry • Formal Apology

Inquiry Into Inquiry
Show threadJon AwbreyJan 14, 2023

In the Way of Inquiry • Formal Apology 7
• https://inquiryintoinquiry.com/2023/01/12/in-the-way-of-inquiry-formal-apology-2/

Explosional Recombinations

An eye to form provides a way to manage the wealth of material diversity by identifying formal similarities among materially distinct domains. It allows the same formal answer to unify a host of concrete questions under a single roof, reducing the variety of topics requiring coverage.

#Peirce #Inquiry #InquiryIntoInquiry #InquiryDrivenSystems
#Abstraction #Form #Isomorphism #Combinatorics #Complexity

In the Way of Inquiry • Formal Apology

Inquiry Into Inquiry
Show threadJon AwbreyJan 15, 2023

In the Way of Inquiry • Formal Apology 8
• https://inquiryintoinquiry.com/2023/01/12/in-the-way-of-inquiry-formal-apology-2/

#InterpretiveFrameworks

Iterations of the recombinatorial process generate alternative hierarchies of categories for controlling the explosion of parts in the domain under inquiry. If by some piece of luck an alternative framework is uniquely suited to the natural ontology of the domain in question, it becomes advisable to reorganize the inquiry along the lines of the new topic headings.

#Peirce #Inquiry #InquiryIntoInquiry

In the Way of Inquiry • Formal Apology

Inquiry Into Inquiry
Show threadJon AwbreyJan 16, 2023

In the Way of Inquiry • Formal Apology 9
• https://inquiryintoinquiry.com/2023/01/12/in-the-way-of-inquiry-formal-apology-2/

#InterpretiveFrameworks

But a complex domain seldom falls out that neatly. The new interpretive framework will not preserve all the information in the object domain but typically capture only another aspect of it. To take the maximal advantage of all the different frameworks that might be devised it is best to quit depending on any one of them exclusively.

#Peirce #Inquiry #InquiryIntoInquiry #InquiryDrivenSystems

In the Way of Inquiry • Formal Apology

Inquiry Into Inquiry
Show threadJon AwbreyJan 16, 2023

In the Way of Inquiry • Formal Apology 10
• https://inquiryintoinquiry.com/2023/01/12/in-the-way-of-inquiry-formal-apology-2/

#InterpretiveFrameworks

Thus, a rigid reliance on a single hierarchy to define the ontology of a given domain passes over into a flexible application of interpretive frameworks to make contact with particular aspects of one’s object domain.

#Peirce #Inquiry #InquiryIntoInquiry #InquiryDrivenSystems
#Abstraction #Analogy #Aristotle #Hermeneutics #Paradigms

In the Way of Inquiry • Formal Apology

Inquiry Into Inquiry
Show threadJon AwbreyJan 20, 2023

In the Way of Inquiry • Material Exigency 1
• https://inquiryintoinquiry.com/2023/01/20/in-the-way-of-inquiry-material-exigency-2/

Our survey of obstacles to inquiry has dealt at length with blocks arising from its formal aspects. On the other hand, I have cast this project as an empirical inquiry, proposing to represent experimental hypotheses in the form of computer programs. At the heart of that empirical attitude is a feeling all formal theories should arise from and bear on experience.

#Peirce #Inquiry #InquiryIntoInquiry #InquiryDrivenSystems

In the Way of Inquiry • Material Exigency

Inquiry Into Inquiry
Show threadJon AwbreyJan 21, 2023

In the Way of Inquiry • Material Exigency 2
• https://inquiryintoinquiry.com/2023/01/20/in-the-way-of-inquiry-material-exigency-2/

Every season of growth in empirical knowledge begins with a rush to the sources of experience. Every fresh-thinking reed of intellect is raised to pipe up and chime in with the still-viable canons of inquiry in one glorious paean to the personal encounter with natural experience.

#Peirce #Inquiry #InquiryIntoInquiry #InquiryDrivenSystems
#Abstraction #Analogy #Form #Matter #Empirical #Rational

In the Way of Inquiry • Material Exigency

Inquiry Into Inquiry
Show threadJon AwbreyJan 21, 2023

In the Way of Inquiry • Material Exigency 3
• https://inquiryintoinquiry.com/2023/01/20/in-the-way-of-inquiry-material-exigency-2/

But real progress in the community of inquiry depends on observers being able to orient themselves to objects of common experience — the uncontrolled exaltation of individual phenomenologies leads as a rule to the disappointment and disillusionment which befalls the lot of unshared enthusiasms and fragmented impressions.

#Peirce #Inquiry #InquiryIntoInquiry #InquiryDrivenSystems

In the Way of Inquiry • Material Exigency

Inquiry Into Inquiry
Show threadJon AwbreyJan 21, 2023

In the Way of Inquiry • Material Exigency 4
• https://inquiryintoinquiry.com/2023/01/20/in-the-way-of-inquiry-material-exigency-2/

Look again at the end of the season and see it faltering to a close, with every novice scribe rapped on the knuckles for departing from that uninspired identification with impersonal authority which expresses itself in third-person passive accounts of one's own experience.

#Peirce #Inquiry #InquiryIntoInquiry #InquiryDrivenSystems
#Abstraction #Analogy #Form #Matter #Empirical #Rational

In the Way of Inquiry • Material Exigency

Inquiry Into Inquiry
Show threadJon AwbreyJan 23, 2023

In the Way of Inquiry • Material Exigency 5
• https://inquiryintoinquiry.com/2023/01/20/in-the-way-of-inquiry-material-exigency-2/

A turn of events so persistent must have a cause, a force of reason to explain the dynamics of its recurring moment in the history of ideas. The nub of it's not born on the sleeve of its first and last stages, where the initial explosion and the final collapse march along their stubborn course in lockstep fashion, but is embodied more naturally in the middle of the above narrative.

#Peirce #Inquiry #InquiryDrivenSystems

In the Way of Inquiry • Material Exigency

Inquiry Into Inquiry
Show threadJon AwbreyJan 23, 2023

In the Way of Inquiry • Material Exigency 6
• https://inquiryintoinquiry.com/2023/01/20/in-the-way-of-inquiry-material-exigency-2/

Experience exposes and explodes expectations. How can experiences impact expectations unless the two types of entities are both reflected in one medium, for instance and perhaps without loss of generality, in the form of representation constituting the domain of signs?

#Peirce #Inquiry #InquiryIntoInquiry #InquiryDrivenSystems
#Experience #Expectation #Representation #Semiotics
#Form #Matter #Empiricism #Rationalism

In the Way of Inquiry • Material Exigency

Inquiry Into Inquiry
Show threadJon AwbreyJan 23, 2023

In the Way of Inquiry • Material Exigency 7
• https://inquiryintoinquiry.com/2023/01/20/in-the-way-of-inquiry-material-exigency-2/

However complex its world may be, internal or external to itself or on the boundaries of its being, a finite creature’s description of it rests in a finite number of finite terms or a finite sketch of finite lines. Finite terms and lines are signs. What they indicate need not be finite but what they are, must be.

#Peirce #Inquiry #InquiryIntoInquiry #InquiryDrivenSystems
#EffectiveDescription #FiniteDescription #Semiotics

In the Way of Inquiry • Material Exigency

Inquiry Into Inquiry
Show threadrrogersJan 12, 2023
@Inquiry
Francis Bacon: “The corruption of philosophy by the mixing of it up with superstition and theology, is of a much wider extent, and is most injurious to it both as a whole and in parts.”
The "scientific method" is simply, guess and verify; honestly. People who don't consider the tedious work and integrity of "scientists", end up "believing" in charlatans, out to take advantage of them. Taking the simple way out by believing without evidence.
Or in terms of the Bible, false prophets.