Refurbishing learning via complexity theory: Buddhist co-origination meets pragmatic transactionalism

Abstract

Hager and Beckett assert that a ‘characteristic feature of … assorted co-present groups is that their processes and outputs are marked by the full gamut of human experiences involved in their functioning’. My paper endorses and further develops this claim. I begin by expanding on their emphasis upon the priority of relations in terms of Dewey and Bentley’s transactionalism and Buddhist dependent co-origination and emptiness. Next, I emphasize the importance of embodied perspectives in acquiring meaning and transforming the world. Here, too, we will find surprising Buddhist connections. Finally, I examine the primacy of practice: how we acquire our minds and selves by participating in shared social practices. This stance is shared by philosophers as diverse as Heidegger, Wittgenstein, and Dewey.

Keywords:

• Buddhism
• co-present groups
• Dewey
• embodiment
• Heidegger
• perspectivism
• primacy of practice
• transaction
• Wittgenstein

Disclosure statement

No potential conflict of interest was reported by the author.

Notes

1 Attitudes could be added to this list.

2 Rosenthal (1997) largely confines herself to a conceptual, intellectual account of Dewey’s perspectivalism but is correct as far as she goes. She is surely correct when she says that a change in the self is more than a “change in an intellectual perspective; rather, it is a change that affects and is affected by the organism in total concreteness” (p. 242). One need only add that the organism in the entirety of its body-mind provides one’s perspective on a situation, not just the cognitive.

3 Radical empiricism rejects the appearance vs. reality dualism. Dewey’s example is the illusion of Zöllner’s lines. These lines are initially experienced as divergent. The experience of the lines as divergent is as “real” as the experience of the lines as parallel. If one concludes that it is true that the lines are divergent, they make a logical, not a metaphysical, mistake. One cannot experience not-reality, even in dreams, hallucinations, fantasies, and such. However, it is easy to make bad inferences. Meanwhile, a trained therapist might make good inferences from a client’s dreams.

4 Lower learning involves the acquisition of habits in the neurophysiological sense of habits that enable skilled “knowing how.” Homo sapiens share this ability with many other species. Ignoring the supreme importance of embodied, hence impassioned, learning is among the greatest failures of formal education. Higher learning is associated with the ability to manipulate abstract symbols that of themselves only refer to other symbols. Of course, this hierarchy is ultimately mistaken. Think of the importance of linguistic habits. Ultimately, like most dualities, it is best to think in terms of useful subfunctional distinctions of one unified function. It also helps to think in circles. It is worth mentioning that many other animals communicate. Indeed, most of the people reading this footnote communicate well with their house pets, just not linguistically even if they use linguistic terms. Nonlinguistic communication contributes greatly to learning within co-present groups.

5 It must also have high-gloss paint, a high-volume sound system, and a spare “fifth wheel” behind the trunk.

6 To view the referent, look up “Houston slab” on the internet.

7 In authoring my text, I (A) am striving to coordinate with you (B), the reader, regarding the meanings (O) I wish to designate. Perhaps you do not agree with me from your perspective. If so, further transactions may occur involving the larger community of practice within which we participate.

Additional information

Notes on contributors

Jim Garrison

Jim Garrison is emeritus professor of philosophy of education at Virginia Tech. He is a past-president of the Philosophy of Education Society, the John Dewey Society, and the Society of Professors of Education. Jim’s books and papers have been translated into ten languages other than English.