Pub Date : 2023-04-22DOI: 10.1177/27538699231168079
P. Zurn, D. Bassett
The concept of possibility has long been intertwined with the discourse of curiosity. The way things might be can disturb the way things are, but we have to be ready for it. Curiosity provides that readiness. There is a kind of critical curiosity that opens the space of possibility by exploiting the instability of the present, second guessing its current contours and exploring how else the world might be constructed or understood. Put differently, it is because of curiosity that revolutions in science, knowledge, and society become possible. The two work in tandem. If curiosity can be a critical comportment toward the possible, then to fully understand possibility one must also understand curiosity. In this brief essay, we take a moment to think that jointure. How might curiosity studies illuminate possibility studies? From our respective vantage points of philosophy and neuroscience, we analyze possibility through curiosity. In doing so, we ultimately illuminate the novelty bias that informs both concepts, the network structures that characterize them, and the adjacent worlds and opportunities they offer.
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Pub Date : 2023-04-22DOI: 10.1177/27538699231166485
D. Harris
In this short essay I draw on the works of Maxine Greene, Donna Haraway and Anna Craft to reject traditional dualisms and binaries, in favour of proposing a possibility studies that is driven by an activist creative agency, in which thinking and doing are entangled and activated across multispecies contexts, and across multiple temporalities. I call readers to action in living potentially harder but more fulfilling, interconnected and sustainable lives and work, as these three philosophers do, through an emergent possibility studies with the ability to radically change education, scholarship and research, through ‘wide-awake’ hearts, minds and relationships.
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Pub Date : 2023-04-06DOI: 10.1177/27538699231168296
N. Sobe
This essay begins from the position that the planetspeak bromide “children are the future” has been banalized far past the point any usefulness. Despite the sensible attractiveness of teaching children well and letting them lead the way, the commonplace ad nauseam linking of children to the “future” has perverse disempowering effects. And, in our current moment of conjunctive global crises, it jeopardizes the future as it actually moves us away from—not toward—transformative pedagogies of the possible. This essay suggests ways to rescue educational possibility from narrow “children are the future” banalities.
{"title":"What if children are not the future? How to support educational possibility","authors":"N. Sobe","doi":"10.1177/27538699231168296","DOIUrl":"https://doi.org/10.1177/27538699231168296","url":null,"abstract":"This essay begins from the position that the planetspeak bromide “children are the future” has been banalized far past the point any usefulness. Despite the sensible attractiveness of teaching children well and letting them lead the way, the commonplace ad nauseam linking of children to the “future” has perverse disempowering effects. And, in our current moment of conjunctive global crises, it jeopardizes the future as it actually moves us away from—not toward—transformative pedagogies of the possible. This essay suggests ways to rescue educational possibility from narrow “children are the future” banalities.","PeriodicalId":147349,"journal":{"name":"Possibility Studies & Society","volume":"83 1","pages":"0"},"PeriodicalIF":0.0,"publicationDate":"2023-04-06","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"132826683","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":0,"RegionCategory":"","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}
Pub Date : 2023-04-05DOI: 10.1177/27538699231160136
R. Beghetto
Possibility thinking (PT) can be described as an imaginative and action-oriented process that drives movement from what is to what could be. The promise of PT is most fully realized in collaboration with others. With recent advances in AI, it can be argued that natural language models (e.g. OpenAI’s GPT models) represent a possible “other” for such collaborations. This article aims to illustrate, through a conceptual case study, how Human × AI collaboration can support PT. The article opens with a brief overview of the basic principles of PT and how those principles can be applied in Human × AI collaboration. Next, a conceptual case study will be presented, which reports on six examples of Human × AI collaborations used for PT. The article closes with a brief discussion of implications and future directions, including the importance of developing a principled approach when using AI for PT. This article likely will be of interest to broad audiences within and across domains, including readers focused on human-centered AI collaborations and anyone interested in learning more about new and emerging ways to generate possibilities in their learning, work, and lives.
{"title":"A new horizon for possibility thinking: A conceptual case study of Human × AI collaboration","authors":"R. Beghetto","doi":"10.1177/27538699231160136","DOIUrl":"https://doi.org/10.1177/27538699231160136","url":null,"abstract":"Possibility thinking (PT) can be described as an imaginative and action-oriented process that drives movement from what is to what could be. The promise of PT is most fully realized in collaboration with others. With recent advances in AI, it can be argued that natural language models (e.g. OpenAI’s GPT models) represent a possible “other” for such collaborations. This article aims to illustrate, through a conceptual case study, how Human × AI collaboration can support PT. The article opens with a brief overview of the basic principles of PT and how those principles can be applied in Human × AI collaboration. Next, a conceptual case study will be presented, which reports on six examples of Human × AI collaborations used for PT. The article closes with a brief discussion of implications and future directions, including the importance of developing a principled approach when using AI for PT. This article likely will be of interest to broad audiences within and across domains, including readers focused on human-centered AI collaborations and anyone interested in learning more about new and emerging ways to generate possibilities in their learning, work, and lives.","PeriodicalId":147349,"journal":{"name":"Possibility Studies & Society","volume":"32 1","pages":"0"},"PeriodicalIF":0.0,"publicationDate":"2023-04-05","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"130931408","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":0,"RegionCategory":"","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}
Pub Date : 2023-03-31DOI: 10.1177/27538699231164603
M. Freeman
Given the state of the world, it is perilously easy—for some, including, at times, the author—to fall prey to despair, including the supposition that the world is moving inexorably downward, perhaps even toward some cataclysmic end. Alluring though despair may sometimes be, and impertinent though hope may sometimes seem, it is precisely in a time of despair that hope becomes most urgent. To succumb to despair is not only fatalistic but problematically “safe.” Hope, predicated as it is on uncertainty about the future, is decidedly more risky. Difficult though it may be to fully embrace hope, it is imperative to hold on to it, for only then can a sense of the possible be sustained.
{"title":"The urgency of hope in a time of despair","authors":"M. Freeman","doi":"10.1177/27538699231164603","DOIUrl":"https://doi.org/10.1177/27538699231164603","url":null,"abstract":"Given the state of the world, it is perilously easy—for some, including, at times, the author—to fall prey to despair, including the supposition that the world is moving inexorably downward, perhaps even toward some cataclysmic end. Alluring though despair may sometimes be, and impertinent though hope may sometimes seem, it is precisely in a time of despair that hope becomes most urgent. To succumb to despair is not only fatalistic but problematically “safe.” Hope, predicated as it is on uncertainty about the future, is decidedly more risky. Difficult though it may be to fully embrace hope, it is imperative to hold on to it, for only then can a sense of the possible be sustained.","PeriodicalId":147349,"journal":{"name":"Possibility Studies & Society","volume":"18 1","pages":"0"},"PeriodicalIF":0.0,"publicationDate":"2023-03-31","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"125510250","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":0,"RegionCategory":"","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}
Pub Date : 2023-03-31DOI: 10.1177/27538699231162304
Caspar Meyer
This essay explores some of the ways in which archeology and possibility studies can enrich each other’s understanding of time, agency and materiality in human behavior. It discusses the implications of linear conceptions of time for our perception of human pasts and futures, and argues for the adoption of rhythm as an alternative mode of inquiry that is capable of liberating the past from our hindsight and making space for the possible as a generative dimension of cultural practice.
{"title":"Rhythm and possibility: Making space for ancient futures","authors":"Caspar Meyer","doi":"10.1177/27538699231162304","DOIUrl":"https://doi.org/10.1177/27538699231162304","url":null,"abstract":"This essay explores some of the ways in which archeology and possibility studies can enrich each other’s understanding of time, agency and materiality in human behavior. It discusses the implications of linear conceptions of time for our perception of human pasts and futures, and argues for the adoption of rhythm as an alternative mode of inquiry that is capable of liberating the past from our hindsight and making space for the possible as a generative dimension of cultural practice.","PeriodicalId":147349,"journal":{"name":"Possibility Studies & Society","volume":"24 1","pages":"0"},"PeriodicalIF":0.0,"publicationDate":"2023-03-31","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"127418065","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":0,"RegionCategory":"","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}
Pub Date : 2023-03-21DOI: 10.1177/27538699221144190
Daniel M. Knight, Gabriela Manley
This paper considers how ‘the possibility of possibility’ as freedom of choice and audacious obligation towards newness found in philosophical works of such scholars as Søren Kierkegaard and Michel Serres is tempered by socio-historical circumstance. Ethnographic material from Scotland and Greece demonstrates contrasting ways that possibilities are impacted by the various timespaces that open or foreclose pathways to the future. Possibility shapes notions of the Self and Society since people are propelled to (in)action by way of recurring and reinterpreted pasts, are pulled through futural horizons in present-day practice or become stuck on the threshold of becoming. In the context of the independence movement in Scotland, possibility plays an active role in political life of independence campaigners with a feedback loop between past-present-future providing momentum to actualise the possible. In Greece, a decade of crisis has foreclosed previously possible futures with people feeling stuck in a repeating spin-cycle where horizons of the possible cannot be crossed. The ethnographic examples showcase how the multiplicities of human life affect the possibility of possibility and how visions of the elsewhere, elsewhen, and otherwise emerge in more or less ‘positive’ scenarios.
{"title":"The possibility of possibility: Between ethnography and social theory","authors":"Daniel M. Knight, Gabriela Manley","doi":"10.1177/27538699221144190","DOIUrl":"https://doi.org/10.1177/27538699221144190","url":null,"abstract":"This paper considers how ‘the possibility of possibility’ as freedom of choice and audacious obligation towards newness found in philosophical works of such scholars as Søren Kierkegaard and Michel Serres is tempered by socio-historical circumstance. Ethnographic material from Scotland and Greece demonstrates contrasting ways that possibilities are impacted by the various timespaces that open or foreclose pathways to the future. Possibility shapes notions of the Self and Society since people are propelled to (in)action by way of recurring and reinterpreted pasts, are pulled through futural horizons in present-day practice or become stuck on the threshold of becoming. In the context of the independence movement in Scotland, possibility plays an active role in political life of independence campaigners with a feedback loop between past-present-future providing momentum to actualise the possible. In Greece, a decade of crisis has foreclosed previously possible futures with people feeling stuck in a repeating spin-cycle where horizons of the possible cannot be crossed. The ethnographic examples showcase how the multiplicities of human life affect the possibility of possibility and how visions of the elsewhere, elsewhen, and otherwise emerge in more or less ‘positive’ scenarios.","PeriodicalId":147349,"journal":{"name":"Possibility Studies & Society","volume":"51 1","pages":"0"},"PeriodicalIF":0.0,"publicationDate":"2023-03-21","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"114744776","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":0,"RegionCategory":"","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}
Pub Date : 2023-03-16DOI: 10.1177/27538699231157624
K. Gergen
The conception and practices of the social sciences are largely the product of a century past. We must now ask the question of whether these traditions adequately equip the sciences for dealing with the daunting global problems of today. Placed in particular question is the traditional focus of research on contemporaneous patterns, events, and conditions. In a world of rapid, globally rippling, and unpredictable change, the significance of such research is debatable. Given the perilous conditions of the world, a shift in the practices of social science is proposed, one that places in the vanguard of our pursuit, the active building of viable futures. Such a shift would favor practices of action research, generative theorizing, creating new forms of cultural life, and process-based education.
{"title":"The social sciences as future forming","authors":"K. Gergen","doi":"10.1177/27538699231157624","DOIUrl":"https://doi.org/10.1177/27538699231157624","url":null,"abstract":"The conception and practices of the social sciences are largely the product of a century past. We must now ask the question of whether these traditions adequately equip the sciences for dealing with the daunting global problems of today. Placed in particular question is the traditional focus of research on contemporaneous patterns, events, and conditions. In a world of rapid, globally rippling, and unpredictable change, the significance of such research is debatable. Given the perilous conditions of the world, a shift in the practices of social science is proposed, one that places in the vanguard of our pursuit, the active building of viable futures. Such a shift would favor practices of action research, generative theorizing, creating new forms of cultural life, and process-based education.","PeriodicalId":147349,"journal":{"name":"Possibility Studies & Society","volume":"12 1","pages":"0"},"PeriodicalIF":0.0,"publicationDate":"2023-03-16","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"130214884","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":0,"RegionCategory":"","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}
Pub Date : 2023-02-17DOI: 10.1177/27538699231152731
P. Johnson-Laird
This article describes how human reasoning differs from standard logics. It tells the story of three sorts of inference, for example: the possibility of rain implies the possibility of no rain; a forecast of rain or snow implies the possibility of rain and the possibility of snow; and a forecast of frost does not imply a forecast of frost or snow or both. People accept these inferences, which each violate the semantics of standard logics. But, they are predictions from the theory that assertions refer to mental models of possibilities that each hold in default of knowledge to the contrary. The moral of the story is that inconsistencies in human reasoning, unlike those in standard logics, have only local consequences.
{"title":"Possibilities and human reasoning","authors":"P. Johnson-Laird","doi":"10.1177/27538699231152731","DOIUrl":"https://doi.org/10.1177/27538699231152731","url":null,"abstract":"This article describes how human reasoning differs from standard logics. It tells the story of three sorts of inference, for example: the possibility of rain implies the possibility of no rain; a forecast of rain or snow implies the possibility of rain and the possibility of snow; and a forecast of frost does not imply a forecast of frost or snow or both. People accept these inferences, which each violate the semantics of standard logics. But, they are predictions from the theory that assertions refer to mental models of possibilities that each hold in default of knowledge to the contrary. The moral of the story is that inconsistencies in human reasoning, unlike those in standard logics, have only local consequences.","PeriodicalId":147349,"journal":{"name":"Possibility Studies & Society","volume":"30 1","pages":"0"},"PeriodicalIF":0.0,"publicationDate":"2023-02-17","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"129886604","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":0,"RegionCategory":"","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}
Pub Date : 2023-01-30DOI: 10.1177/27538699231151373
R. Poli
Three basic acceptations of the possible are presented: the epistemological, the ontological, and the metaphysical. The latter two are presented in some details. They could be distinguished as the processual unfolding of conditions (the ontological reading) and the vision of the process as given and fully completed within each present moment (the metaphysical reading). The ontological dimension can be further distinguished into two different unfoldings of real processes: as the horizontal (temporal) accumulation of determinations and as the vertical (through strata of reality) emergence of both higher entities and higher determinations.
{"title":"Basic understandings of possibility","authors":"R. Poli","doi":"10.1177/27538699231151373","DOIUrl":"https://doi.org/10.1177/27538699231151373","url":null,"abstract":"Three basic acceptations of the possible are presented: the epistemological, the ontological, and the metaphysical. The latter two are presented in some details. They could be distinguished as the processual unfolding of conditions (the ontological reading) and the vision of the process as given and fully completed within each present moment (the metaphysical reading). The ontological dimension can be further distinguished into two different unfoldings of real processes: as the horizontal (temporal) accumulation of determinations and as the vertical (through strata of reality) emergence of both higher entities and higher determinations.","PeriodicalId":147349,"journal":{"name":"Possibility Studies & Society","volume":"51 1","pages":"0"},"PeriodicalIF":0.0,"publicationDate":"2023-01-30","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"115464279","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":0,"RegionCategory":"","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}
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