Untested feasibility is realized only through testing action, not perception.

Evidence

Real consciousness implies the impossibility of perceiving the “untested feasibility” which lies beyond the limit-situations. But whereas the untested feasibility cannot be achieved at the level of “real [or present] consciousness,” it can be realized through “testing action” which reveals its hitherto unperceived viability. The untested feasibility and real consciousness are related, as are testing action and potential consciousness. Goldman’s concept of “potential consciousness” is similar to what Nicolaï terms “unperceived praticable solutions” (our “untested feasibility”), in contrast to “perceived practicable solutions” and “presently practiced solutions,” which correspond to Goldman’s “real consciousness.” Accordingly, the fact that the investigators may in the first stage of the investigation approximately apprehend the complex of contradictions does not authorize them to begin to structure the program content of educational action. This perception of reality is still their own, not that of the people. — Paulo Freire, Pedagogy of the Oppressed, 329

Categorization

• DEFINE: Defines the real/potential consciousness pair and ‘untested feasibility’ — core technical vocabulary.
• DEEPTHINKING: The key insight that the investigators’ own perception of contradictions is still their own, not the people’s — the mechanism Freire uses to prevent the new vanguard problem the reader wants to challenge.