[xmca] Aristotle's PRACTICAL philosophy as providing historical perspective

[Larry Purss <lpscholar2@gmail.com>]

Mike and others

My last post summarized Wilfred Carr's linking AR to Aristotle's phronesis
[and Anna Stetsenko's transformative activist stance]

Carr, on p.428 of his article explains why it is relevant to explore this
*antiquated* practical philosophy link to AR.  He writes,

What distinguishes "practical philosophy from action research are the
radical differences in the historical contexts in which they emerged and the
background assumptions and beliefs shaping the perspectives in terms of
which they were made intelligible.  It is thereforeonly to be expected that,
when viewed from the historical perspective informing our contemporary
understanding of action research, practical philosophy will tend to be
regarded as an outmoded and methodologically naive mode of inquiry that can
contribute nothing to action research's current methodological debates. But
SHOULD the Aristotelian tradition of practical philosophy be dismissed as
having nothing more than antiquarian interest?  Or does it provide us an
external vantage point which by transcending the boundaries of action
research's internal methodological debate, may help us to discover why
action research has been so keen to embrace the idea of *methodology* and
whether it is misguided to do so?  Fortunately, the intellectual resources
needed to answer this question are provided by Hans-Georg Gadamer's powerful
re-affirmation of the Aristotelian tradition of practical philosophy and his
ambitious attempt to show how it can be rehabilitated in a way that would
make it appropriate to the modern world".

Wilfred Carr's historical perspective on practical philosophy and action
research points out how practical philosophy as an approach can be subsumed
in the contemporary era by the preoccupation to find a new social *science*
research paradigm that would eliminate the gap between theory and practice.
However, whereas "practical philosophy was designed precisely to protect
practice against unwarranted theoretical incursions (Carr refers us to
Dunne, 1993) action research was DESIGNED  to provide research METHODOLOGY
that would INTEGRATE theory and practice by drawing on theoretical knowledge
FROM psychology, philosophy, sociology, and other fields of social science
in order to test its EXPLANATORY power and practical usefulness.

Aristotle's deliberate attempt to differentiate the *theoretical abstract*
and *practical ethical* philosophy in action research becomes integrated as
an ideal in our current turn in action research.

Hans-Georg Gadamer has a particular perspective on the contrasts between
action research and practical philosophy in their alternative approaches to
methodology.

I want to qualify this post by locating my zone of understanding as all over
the map as I'm required  to *cherry-pick* and link ideas in *complexes* as
I'm at the beginning of asking these questions, but I enjoy picking up a
thread and following it from suggestions such as Mike suggesting we read the
introduction to the current MCA.  Then, I trust in distributed cognition and
the internal/external  *commognition* of this listserv to carry me on the
ocean currents as I learn to sail and link up concepts [nexus of
perspectives].  Vygotsky's metaphor of coordinates on the globe is another
map metaphor.  I often feel I'm navigating with other sojourners on an
*ethical* journey and looking over their shoulders to peer into their
compass in order to get my bearings.  The final destination, Aristotle
suggests, is that WE begin to mutually coordinate and get our bearings
through historical time/space.

I am attempting to develop background knowledge in which to engage in the
evolving dialogue on methods/methodology and intuitively want to link Anna
Stetsenko and Gadamer into my internal/external conversation,  but need
other compasses to give me a bearing once in awhile to help with the
coordinates and guide me through the rocky shoals.

Larry

Larry
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