Epistemological Questions for a Psychology of Dialogue
Michael J. Baker, Télécom Paris, Institut Interdisciplinaire de l’Innovation (UMR CNRS 9217), Institut Polytechnique de Paris, France. Email: [email protected]. · Studia Universitatis Babeș-Bolyai Philosophia · 2022
"Notwithstanding the magisterial work of the psychologists H. H. Clark and A. Trognon, in comparison with sociology and linguistics a veritable psychology of dialogue still remains little elaborated. This paper analyses epistemological obstacles facing such an enterprise, arguing that dialogue can not be understood as a ‘window’ on the individual mind. A vision of dialogue as a process of collective thinking, with the exchange as the fundamental unit of analysis, is sketched out. Dialogue is a complex system, involving multidirectional relations between situational representations, communicative action and emergent thinking. Keywords: dialogue, collective thinking, interaction analysis, methodology, complex systems. "