Pragmatic inquiry and creativity: a critical perspective

’Don’t block the road of inquiry” was the motto of Peirce and also Dewey situated inquiry in its ideal version in a democratic and cooperative community. Abduction became the key concept for the pragmatic and creative research process where the lonely engineer is substituted with intelligent collaborations of the many. Thus, inquiry is from a pragmatic understanding rather a social than a purely cognitive task. The paper will firstly give a sketch of this understanding of inquiry and creativity on the background of the theories of Peirce and Dewey and will draw some parallels to recent conceptualizations of knowledge production within the field of sociology of knowledge (Helga Nowotny). The pragmatic approach to inquiry as part of everyday life practices is committed not only to the acceptance and inclusion of the public but also to the humanistic ideal of meliorism. From the perspective of Thevenot’s critical pragmatism this understanding might be naïve – not because this is an idealistic rather than a real-life scenario but because the idea of collaborative creativity and self-realization has actually become the driving force in a marked dominated organization of science and production. ‘The inspired world’ as Laurent Thévenot calls this creative environment, is liberating and repressive at the same time, thriving upon constant innovation and excitement. The force to be creative leads to a higher form of alienation. How would Dewey react to this diagnosis? The paper will secondly present a critical dialogue between Thévenot and Dewey about the role of creativity and community for inquiry.