Waymaking

exploring spaces beyond either/or in philosophy and the cognitive sciences

“Way-making blunts the sharp edges and untangles the knots;

it softens the glare and brings things together on the same track.”

Way-making is a general term for a new approach to philosophy.

As a term, it offers an alternative to binary linguistic assumptions and either/or choices in the philosophical and cognitive sciences. It does this by holding contrasting sides without trying to be rid of one or the other, allowing that from each position, there are distinctions that are irreconcilable. It also acknowledges that there is a space holding these conflicting positions—a dynamic process beyond those contrasts that also allows them.

When we stop trying to dissolve one side into the other, when we stop trying to force one side into the winning position, we may find that further contradictory nodes open beyond what first felt like binaries. The point is not to stop the discussion and debate, but to orient it out of the loop of competing philosophies and towards common challenges that phil…