Pub Date : 2023-01-30DOI: 10.1177/27538699221150777
R. Baumeister, J. Alquist
Social psychology studies how situations cause behavior. Situations are partly defined by a matrix of possibilities (including probabilities and contingencies), and so human responses are caused not merely by realities but also by possibilities—even including some possibilities that never materialize. The human mind has complex abilities to recognize, imagine, and deal with possibilities. Two important dimensions of possibility, here labeled horizontal and vertical, differ as to how controllable the outcome is for any particular agent and where the value basis originates. Success/failure is an example of the vertical dimension and normally is only partly controllable, whereas open choice such as ordering off a menu is an example of the horizontal dimension. Possibilities and agency develop complex relationships to time: The future is defined by alternative possibilities whereas the past cannot be changed, though it can be re-imagined counterfactually and also reinterpreted. Last, we highlight the problem of how possibilities and probabilities combine. Statistical analysis of variance strategies offer three models of combination: independent and additive (like main effects), damping versus intensifying each other (as in spreading interactions), or reversing each other’s effects (as in crossover interactions).
{"title":"The pragmatic structure of indeterminacy: Mapping possibilities as context for action","authors":"R. Baumeister, J. Alquist","doi":"10.1177/27538699221150777","DOIUrl":"https://doi.org/10.1177/27538699221150777","url":null,"abstract":"Social psychology studies how situations cause behavior. Situations are partly defined by a matrix of possibilities (including probabilities and contingencies), and so human responses are caused not merely by realities but also by possibilities—even including some possibilities that never materialize. The human mind has complex abilities to recognize, imagine, and deal with possibilities. Two important dimensions of possibility, here labeled horizontal and vertical, differ as to how controllable the outcome is for any particular agent and where the value basis originates. Success/failure is an example of the vertical dimension and normally is only partly controllable, whereas open choice such as ordering off a menu is an example of the horizontal dimension. Possibilities and agency develop complex relationships to time: The future is defined by alternative possibilities whereas the past cannot be changed, though it can be re-imagined counterfactually and also reinterpreted. Last, we highlight the problem of how possibilities and probabilities combine. Statistical analysis of variance strategies offer three models of combination: independent and additive (like main effects), damping versus intensifying each other (as in spreading interactions), or reversing each other’s effects (as in crossover interactions).","PeriodicalId":147349,"journal":{"name":"Possibility Studies & Society","volume":"1 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":"129261618","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: 10.1177/27538699221145664
G. E. Corazza
In this article, the problem of understanding multiple layers of complexity in our universe is addressed, with particular emphasis on explaining creative evolutions in the material, biological, and psycho-social layers. Perspectives from physics, biology, psychology, and philosophy are utilized in the discussion. Process philosophy is used to justify the theoretical foundation of the dynamic universal creativity process. The concepts of unified and final theories are discussed from a position that criticizes reductionism. The concept of the adjacent possible is reviewed as introduced by Kauffman to exclude the possibility that a theory from physics could be extended to explain the biological layer. In a similar way, the adjacent possible is shown to be useful but insufficient to explain the psycho-social layer of complexity, missing fundamental human abilities such as thinking of long-term futures, wisdom, and dynamic creativity leaps that use the impossible as an inspiration.
{"title":"Beyond the adjacent possible: On the irreducibility of human creativity to biology and physics","authors":"G. E. Corazza","doi":"10.1177/27538699221145664","DOIUrl":"https://doi.org/10.1177/27538699221145664","url":null,"abstract":"In this article, the problem of understanding multiple layers of complexity in our universe is addressed, with particular emphasis on explaining creative evolutions in the material, biological, and psycho-social layers. Perspectives from physics, biology, psychology, and philosophy are utilized in the discussion. Process philosophy is used to justify the theoretical foundation of the dynamic universal creativity process. The concepts of unified and final theories are discussed from a position that criticizes reductionism. The concept of the adjacent possible is reviewed as introduced by Kauffman to exclude the possibility that a theory from physics could be extended to explain the biological layer. In a similar way, the adjacent possible is shown to be useful but insufficient to explain the psycho-social layer of complexity, missing fundamental human abilities such as thinking of long-term futures, wisdom, and dynamic creativity leaps that use the impossible as an inspiration.","PeriodicalId":147349,"journal":{"name":"Possibility Studies & Society","volume":"94 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":"116258512","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 : 2023-01-27DOI: 10.1177/27538699221142510
F. Faggin
Creative possibilities require imagination, intuition, vision, creativity, comprehension, and inventiveness, properties that are associated with human consciousness and free will. New developments in quantum information theory have allowed to recently postulate with high confidence that consciousness and free will are properties of quantum systems in pure quantum states. This new development allows saying that possibilities emerge from the quantum level of reality since a classical world is deterministic, that is, algorithmic and predictable, and thus incapable of real creativity. Only a creative agent like a human being could imagine real possibilities in a near-infinite combinatorial sea of patterns, and then figure out some intelligent way to realize them. Even if nature were aimlessly creating random patterns someone should have the comprehension to recognize a creative possibility among them. But comprehension is a non-algorithmic property that requires consciousness.
{"title":"Possibilities are quantum","authors":"F. Faggin","doi":"10.1177/27538699221142510","DOIUrl":"https://doi.org/10.1177/27538699221142510","url":null,"abstract":"Creative possibilities require imagination, intuition, vision, creativity, comprehension, and inventiveness, properties that are associated with human consciousness and free will. New developments in quantum information theory have allowed to recently postulate with high confidence that consciousness and free will are properties of quantum systems in pure quantum states. This new development allows saying that possibilities emerge from the quantum level of reality since a classical world is deterministic, that is, algorithmic and predictable, and thus incapable of real creativity. Only a creative agent like a human being could imagine real possibilities in a near-infinite combinatorial sea of patterns, and then figure out some intelligent way to realize them. Even if nature were aimlessly creating random patterns someone should have the comprehension to recognize a creative possibility among them. But comprehension is a non-algorithmic property that requires consciousness.","PeriodicalId":147349,"journal":{"name":"Possibility Studies & Society","volume":"198 1","pages":"0"},"PeriodicalIF":0.0,"publicationDate":"2023-01-27","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"133811022","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 : 2023-01-27DOI: 10.1177/27538699221145584
R. Baron
The words possibility and opportunity are often viewed as synonyms. In the field of entrepreneurship, though, they have different meanings. Possibilities refer to what might be in the future but does not now exist. Opportunities refer to possibilities that can be developed into something real—new products, services, processes. Entrepreneurs evaluate opportunities in terms of their feasibility, potential for development, and whether people will want and use them if available; they then attempt to choose the ones highest on these dimensions. Several factors play a role in entrepreneurs’ success in identifying potentially valuable opportunities, including the findings of relevant research, entrepreneurs’ active search for opportunities, recognition of patterns among apparently unrelated factors, and in some instances, chance. When successful in creating something new and better than what currently exists, entrepreneurs can change human life and—sometimes—the world around us.
{"title":"How entrepreneurs turn the possible into the real—and sometimes change the world","authors":"R. Baron","doi":"10.1177/27538699221145584","DOIUrl":"https://doi.org/10.1177/27538699221145584","url":null,"abstract":"The words possibility and opportunity are often viewed as synonyms. In the field of entrepreneurship, though, they have different meanings. Possibilities refer to what might be in the future but does not now exist. Opportunities refer to possibilities that can be developed into something real—new products, services, processes. Entrepreneurs evaluate opportunities in terms of their feasibility, potential for development, and whether people will want and use them if available; they then attempt to choose the ones highest on these dimensions. Several factors play a role in entrepreneurs’ success in identifying potentially valuable opportunities, including the findings of relevant research, entrepreneurs’ active search for opportunities, recognition of patterns among apparently unrelated factors, and in some instances, chance. When successful in creating something new and better than what currently exists, entrepreneurs can change human life and—sometimes—the world around us.","PeriodicalId":147349,"journal":{"name":"Possibility Studies & Society","volume":"216 1","pages":"0"},"PeriodicalIF":0.0,"publicationDate":"2023-01-27","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"122384586","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 : 2022-12-20DOI: 10.1177/27538699221132691
S. Gallagher
Can we explain how the various factors of knowledge, skill, habit, environmental constraints and affordances interact or integrate in improvisational performance? In attempting to explain how this integration takes place, I’ll consider two possible approaches: predictive processing (PP) and enactivism. I’ll argue that PP, which, on a neuroscientific view, conceives of the mind as set up to avoid surprise, will not be able to explain improvisation if it remains true to its own principles. In contrast, I’ll argue, enactivism, as a form of embodied cognition that takes the explanatory unit to be the brain-body environment, can offer a better explanation of improvisation. I’ll also argue that the notion of habit is central to this account.
{"title":"Surprise! Why enactivism and predictive processing are parting ways: The case of improvisation","authors":"S. Gallagher","doi":"10.1177/27538699221132691","DOIUrl":"https://doi.org/10.1177/27538699221132691","url":null,"abstract":"Can we explain how the various factors of knowledge, skill, habit, environmental constraints and affordances interact or integrate in improvisational performance? In attempting to explain how this integration takes place, I’ll consider two possible approaches: predictive processing (PP) and enactivism. I’ll argue that PP, which, on a neuroscientific view, conceives of the mind as set up to avoid surprise, will not be able to explain improvisation if it remains true to its own principles. In contrast, I’ll argue, enactivism, as a form of embodied cognition that takes the explanatory unit to be the brain-body environment, can offer a better explanation of improvisation. I’ll also argue that the notion of habit is central to this account.","PeriodicalId":147349,"journal":{"name":"Possibility Studies & Society","volume":"102 1","pages":"0"},"PeriodicalIF":0.0,"publicationDate":"2022-12-20","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"116674627","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 : 2022-12-20DOI: 10.1177/27538699221135332
F. Moghaddam
This brief paper explores possibilities for change in political behavior through what I term “political plasticity.” Revolutions provide a suitable context in which to critically examine political plasticity, particularly when the revolutionaries who come to power attempt to bring about radical political changes. The examples of the Bolsheviks who attempted to implement collectivization after the 1917 revolution in Russia, and the Shi’a Muslim fundamentalists, who attempted to create a healthy dictatorial society under velayat-e-faghih after the 1979 revolution in Iran, are used to illustrate limitations to political plasticity, shedding light on possibilities for changes in political behavior.
{"title":"Political plasticity and possibilities for political change","authors":"F. Moghaddam","doi":"10.1177/27538699221135332","DOIUrl":"https://doi.org/10.1177/27538699221135332","url":null,"abstract":"This brief paper explores possibilities for change in political behavior through what I term “political plasticity.” Revolutions provide a suitable context in which to critically examine political plasticity, particularly when the revolutionaries who come to power attempt to bring about radical political changes. The examples of the Bolsheviks who attempted to implement collectivization after the 1917 revolution in Russia, and the Shi’a Muslim fundamentalists, who attempted to create a healthy dictatorial society under velayat-e-faghih after the 1979 revolution in Iran, are used to illustrate limitations to political plasticity, shedding light on possibilities for changes in political behavior.","PeriodicalId":147349,"journal":{"name":"Possibility Studies & Society","volume":"26 1","pages":"0"},"PeriodicalIF":0.0,"publicationDate":"2022-12-20","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"126597905","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 : 2022-11-19DOI: 10.1177/27538699221127580
V. Glăveanu
it – is never entirely predictable. Beyond ‘what currently is’, there is room for ‘what is not yet, but will be’, ‘what might be’ and ‘what can never be’. And the realm of the possible doesn’t stop with the future, it also helps us imagine ‘what might have been’, in the past, and what exists ‘as if’ in the present. To engage with the possible means to infuse ‘what is’ with new perspectives and, in doing so, to radically transform it (Gaggioli, 2020; Glăveanu, 2020a). Possibility Studies as a new and emergent multi-and trans-disciplinary field is dedicated to the study of this shift of focus from being to becoming, from what is to what could be, from deterministic accounts of the world to agentic, generative and open-ended understandings. We human beings live ‘amphibious’ lives – at once in the realm of the actual and the possible. By foregrounding hope, imagination, agency and creativity, we can get to fully appreciate what it means to be human in a world that oftentimes resists our needs, expectations
{"title":"Possibility studies: A manifesto","authors":"V. Glăveanu","doi":"10.1177/27538699221127580","DOIUrl":"https://doi.org/10.1177/27538699221127580","url":null,"abstract":"it – is never entirely predictable. Beyond ‘what currently is’, there is room for ‘what is not yet, but will be’, ‘what might be’ and ‘what can never be’. And the realm of the possible doesn’t stop with the future, it also helps us imagine ‘what might have been’, in the past, and what exists ‘as if’ in the present. To engage with the possible means to infuse ‘what is’ with new perspectives and, in doing so, to radically transform it (Gaggioli, 2020; Glăveanu, 2020a). Possibility Studies as a new and emergent multi-and trans-disciplinary field is dedicated to the study of this shift of focus from being to becoming, from what is to what could be, from deterministic accounts of the world to agentic, generative and open-ended understandings. We human beings live ‘amphibious’ lives – at once in the realm of the actual and the possible. By foregrounding hope, imagination, agency and creativity, we can get to fully appreciate what it means to be human in a world that oftentimes resists our needs, expectations","PeriodicalId":147349,"journal":{"name":"Possibility Studies & Society","volume":"22 1","pages":"0"},"PeriodicalIF":0.0,"publicationDate":"2022-11-19","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"122324539","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 : 2022-11-19DOI: 10.1177/27538699221128499
J. Valsiner
The newly established field of possibility studies is set to solve complex theoretical problems created by the future-based setup of the notion of possibility. Irreversible time sets strict limits upon the uses of the concept of possibility and calls for its conceptualization in terms of cultural psychology of dynamic semiosis. Use of signs work in two parallel ways—organizing the present experience and catalyzing future possibilities. Negotiation of the constraint borders for the future is the main function of possibilities discourse. Hence investigation into possibilities requires coordination of intentionality of the actor with imagination about the future.
{"title":"Possibilities enhanced and constrained: Where dynamic semiosis works","authors":"J. Valsiner","doi":"10.1177/27538699221128499","DOIUrl":"https://doi.org/10.1177/27538699221128499","url":null,"abstract":"The newly established field of possibility studies is set to solve complex theoretical problems created by the future-based setup of the notion of possibility. Irreversible time sets strict limits upon the uses of the concept of possibility and calls for its conceptualization in terms of cultural psychology of dynamic semiosis. Use of signs work in two parallel ways—organizing the present experience and catalyzing future possibilities. Negotiation of the constraint borders for the future is the main function of possibilities discourse. Hence investigation into possibilities requires coordination of intentionality of the actor with imagination about the future.","PeriodicalId":147349,"journal":{"name":"Possibility Studies & Society","volume":"55 1","pages":"0"},"PeriodicalIF":0.0,"publicationDate":"2022-11-19","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"123136835","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 : 2022-11-16DOI: 10.1177/27538699221128218
N. Crilly
Design research has much to contribute to and much to gain from the emerging field of possibility studies. In this short essay, I discuss these opportunities with respect to four topics: (1) processes of mediation and representation, (2) systems perspectives on creative work, (3) methodological options for investigation, and (4) educational challenges that should be addressed. Considering design research’s contributions to each of these topics raises interesting questions that possibility studies might address as it develops. Conversely, possibility studies is already raising issues that design research should also attend to.
{"title":"Design research and the study of the possible","authors":"N. Crilly","doi":"10.1177/27538699221128218","DOIUrl":"https://doi.org/10.1177/27538699221128218","url":null,"abstract":"Design research has much to contribute to and much to gain from the emerging field of possibility studies. In this short essay, I discuss these opportunities with respect to four topics: (1) processes of mediation and representation, (2) systems perspectives on creative work, (3) methodological options for investigation, and (4) educational challenges that should be addressed. Considering design research’s contributions to each of these topics raises interesting questions that possibility studies might address as it develops. Conversely, possibility studies is already raising issues that design research should also attend to.","PeriodicalId":147349,"journal":{"name":"Possibility Studies & Society","volume":"4 1","pages":"0"},"PeriodicalIF":0.0,"publicationDate":"2022-11-16","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"121157353","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 : 2022-11-16DOI: 10.1177/27538699221128220
R. Sternberg, Christian Fischer
Some nations of the world have fallen into autocracy or outright dictatorship. Others are democracies, anocracies (quasi-democracies with features of both democracies and autocracies), or pseudo-democracies (autocracies pretending to be democracies). Some of these nations still can prevent themselves from falling into the dictatorship trap. They have a choice, but what will they do? This article discusses the current state of governance in the world, how autocrats emerge, and what can be done—especially in our educational systems—to prevent their emergence. Strengthening democracy, which, according to Freedom House, has been on a steady long-term decline, must be a priority for schooling of young people today.
{"title":"Diverging roads: Democracy, anocracy, autocracy, dictatorship?","authors":"R. Sternberg, Christian Fischer","doi":"10.1177/27538699221128220","DOIUrl":"https://doi.org/10.1177/27538699221128220","url":null,"abstract":"Some nations of the world have fallen into autocracy or outright dictatorship. Others are democracies, anocracies (quasi-democracies with features of both democracies and autocracies), or pseudo-democracies (autocracies pretending to be democracies). Some of these nations still can prevent themselves from falling into the dictatorship trap. They have a choice, but what will they do? This article discusses the current state of governance in the world, how autocrats emerge, and what can be done—especially in our educational systems—to prevent their emergence. Strengthening democracy, which, according to Freedom House, has been on a steady long-term decline, must be a priority for schooling of young people today.","PeriodicalId":147349,"journal":{"name":"Possibility Studies & Society","volume":"14 1","pages":"0"},"PeriodicalIF":0.0,"publicationDate":"2022-11-16","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"131453421","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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