Dewey’s Logic and Social Autopoiesis: Creative Forces for/of Social (R)evolution

This paper discusses how John Dewey’s logic in his theory of inquiry can inform and perhaps guide efforts to re-form education and to allow the creative forces of emergence to affect and create adaptive social systems as learning organizations. The paper contends that Dewey’s naturalistic theory of experience predated yet anticipated the discourses of complex adaptive systems (CAS) theories (Maturana, 1980) and social autopoiesis (Luhmann, 1995). It finds that these varying perspectives can be engaged dialectically to provide insights into school re-form and (r)evolution. Visions of schooling must proceed from the multiple discourses of postmodern meaning rather than the mechanistic perspectives of production models. Contains 3 figures and 23 references.

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