Our mission at CFIC is rooted in the long tradition of thought that employs humanist ethics and a rigorous process of inquiry rooted in the scientific method. Underpinning this is the view that democracy is required if our ethics and inquiry are to have a meaningful impact on the world. An exploration of what democratic practice means, then, is useful in helping us actualize our mission.

Our process of inquiry is an antidote to ‘bad’ thinking in all forms. Any received truths are subjected to validity tests in the real world. We seek to experience the consequences of truth claims for ourselves in a communal, neverending process of inquiry. If one of us experiences a result, we ask others to confirm it. The more such experiences are confirmed by others, the closer we come to an understanding of what is true. We recognize, however, that even our claims, replicated as they may be, are contingent truths. We know that our positions might change as new evidence emerges from our experiences. Our claims are formidable because they are nimble, flexible, and evolve as experience dictates.

Democratic practice is central to this method of inquiry because it invites wide participation. The more our contingent claims are subjected to experiences the more robust they become. John Dewey, one of the signatories of the Humanist Manifesto of 1933 and a leading figure in philosophical pragmatism, expressed this as a collective intellectual effort toward “warranted assertability”. Such assertions are made without holding them as absolute or immutable, requiring a high degree of comfort with uncertainty since answers to such complex questions lead to more questions and a renewed process of inquiry.

It is ultimately a fallibilist, experimental, skeptical position that is always in search of more evidence and involvement of more people who have diverse experiences. Our knowledge claims are warranted because they have been repeatedly experienced by others who approach them from different perspectives. This wide democratic community of scholars does not supersede the structured scientific method of experimentation but supports the authority of scientific expertise by adding yet another layer to the process made up of active citizens. It is the scientific method at the level of the demos.

The democratization of inquiry inevitably tests the instrumentality of claims. That is, the consequences of our claims when they are tested in the complexity of the real world. Human reasoning needs to be employed in the project of solving real-world problems and democratic inquiry at the service of humanity to facilitate ethical action. A particular ethical supposition may seem coherent at first pass or in theory. Its consequences when tested in the real world will tell us of its validity. This appeal to consequences is the pragmatic ethics test and it informs future action. While it’s important to discover the truth about nature regardless of its implication, it is of vital importance that what we learn is applied to the serves of human flourishing and the health of the biosphere.

Our work at CFIC should not aim at cultural transmission as most formal education does, but at cultural transformation. This means a method of inquiry that asks Canadians to become active citizens and to investigate questions and issues thoughtfully and in dialogue with others. It is an invitation to explore theories, methodologies, and the process of evaluation and reflection. Ultimately this leads to a reworking of original questions and revisions of the plans to address the new question. The aim is to continually exercise the process of forming and testing ideas in order to enable growth in personal judgment, social intelligence, and ultimately social action.

In this type of educational process values are developed through thoughtful action within the democratic community. Democracy is not just a political structure or a subject of study but it is the milieu in which active citizens learn about what is true and how to use such knowledge in the service of ethical action. Education should democratize the scientific method and the “ownership” of its machinery. By helping Canadians learn the inquiry process (the "language of intelligence" as Dewey called it), and cultivate a democratic habit of mind, we empower them to become lifelong learners who are skeptical of fast and easy positions, ready to take action as informed citizens.