4 Inspirations and demarcations

My views on knowledge, learning and identity presented in the last two sections have been developed by engaging in ‘philosophizing with’ a number of different positions within research methodology, psychology, educational theory and the learning sciences. This is evidenced in the discussions I undertake of literature within these fields in each of the anthology’s articles. Traces of the process are also apparent in the presentation given this far, where several of my claims have been articulated with reference to or in distinction from other theorists. In the process, I have therefore already to some extent located my views within a wider landscape of philosophical and learning theoretical positions. Nonetheless, a more systematic characterization of this landscape seems apposite as a way of clarifying how my claims relate to what other theorists say, whether or not these theorists have noticeably influenced me – positively as inspiration or negatively by way of demarcation – in developing my claims. Space considerations bar a complete depiction, though. Accordingly, in this section I provide a sketch of the field of views on knowledge to which my position belongs. Decisive in determining which lines to draw and which views to include has been the question of their potential contribution to the aim of the section, i.e. the clarification-through-contrast of my views. I take on the sketch of the learning theoretical landscape first and turn afterwards to a similar sketch for epistemology.