Communicating certainty and uncertainty in everyday life: An introduction

• Published in: Ricerche di pedagogia e didattica Vol. 9; no. 1; pp. 9 - 33
• Main Author: Letizia Caronia
• Format: Journal Article
• Language: English
• Published: University of Bologna 01-04-2014
• Subjects: beliefs; certainties; children socialization; everyday life; language and social interaction; moral and epistemic stances; phenomenology
• ISSN: 1970-2221
• DOI: 10.6092/issn.1970-2221/4289

This introduction focuses on the relevance of certainty and uncertainty in sociallife. We will firstly underscore the structuring role of certainties as it was outlinedby the phenomenological approach to the life-world in the first half of the XXcentury. Drawing on the bottom-up perspective advanced by the interactionistturn in social sciences, we then consider how people routinely (re)construct thesecertainties in ordinary life through their everyday mundane practices. To empiricallyillustrate how certainties are - at the same time - presupposed and constituted ineveryday communication, we analyze two examples of child/adult interaction. Byilluminating some consequences of building upon unquestionable certainties, weraise the issue of uncertainty as a relevant modality in and for everyday life. In thediscussion we contend that far from being proper to the philosopher’s attitude asformer phenomenology put it, uncertainty and doubt are – or at least may be - thetools for everyday rational and ethical thinking. Finally we present the articles collectedin this issue that represents a collective effort to explore the territories ofcertainty and uncertainty and the relevance the management of epistemics has insocial interaction.