Inquiry is a process undertaken to discover the truth; conversation, an exchange undertaken for its own purposes, refusing to acknowledge any with “non-conversational tensions.”
Peirce defines Inquiry as broadly as any project in which doubt is overcome and a state of belief is established. He and some others suggest that Inquiry or research is undertaken to discover a previously unknown truth and that philosophy is – or should be – a form of Inquiry.
Recently, Richard Rorty suggested replacing Inquiry with conversation. The point of view of human discourse is not to copy reality (to put a mirror in front of nature or history), but to deal in more and more creative ways with the current circumstances in which we find ourselves.
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