Knowledge, Learning and Change

Abstract

In the second of the interviews we discussed issues of representation, knowledge , learning , change , reductionism , meta-reflection , the possibility of universals , dialectical critical realism , complexity , actualism , the epistemic fallacy , metaReality and agency . In basic critical realism what is said about learning is very much in terms of the development of beliefs. With dialectical critical realism, it is clear that learning is involved in all the components of action, so there is learning at the level of values, learning at the level of wants, and of course, more generally. This means that we have to take into consideration not just the development of beliefs in education and in life, but of course the development of skills and dispositions. In the Philosophy of metaReality (2002) there is a model of learning, which is called the unfolding of the enfolded. So basically the model of the unfolding of the enfolded allows us to look at learning not so much as learning of something outside, but as the unfolding of an implicit potential that human beings have. The outside is still very important. The teacher is a catalyst; the teacher provides the conditions and means whereby the unfolding process occurs, but the changing emphasis is to see the human being blessed from the outset with infinite potential. And what happens in life is that we realise or fail to realise some of our potentials. Most of the others are ignored or not called upon