Passibility At the Limits of the Constructivist Metaphor

In support of the hypothesis that passibility underlies cognition, readers are provided with a collation of empirical studies and phenomenological analyses of knowing and learning science―in schools, scientific laboratories and everyday life―all of which defy a constructivist explanation. The author argues that 'passibility' constitutes an essential factor in the development of consciousness, with a range of essential experiences that cannot be brought into the linguistic realm. His exploration is guided by concepts such as 'otherness', passion, passivity and undecidability, and concludes by resituating the construction metaphor to accord it its proper place in a more comprehensive theory of learning.