During the 20th century, John Dewey introduced a new idea with respect to the
nature of logical theory: He presented a portrait of logic as a theory about how
organisms interact and maintain an integrated balance between themselves and their
environment. He wrote many texts on what he called his theory of inquiry, including
Essays in Experimental Logic (1916), Studies in Logical Theory (1903), and How We
Think (1910). However, the book where he most closely detailed his theory of inquiry is
in his Logic: The Theory of Inquiry (1938). These texts by Dewey have served as the
source for much recent discussion and commentary in Dewey scholarship. Most of these
interpretations on DeweyÂs theory of inquiry, I maintain, misunderstand Dewey in some
fundamental way. I argue that these commentators have gone wrong in interpreting
Dewey and his works by failing to understand some aspect of his theory of inquiry. I
illustrate the flaws in their interpretations and subsequently integrate the conclusions I
reach into a single, cohesive perspective on DeweyÂs account of inquiry. The final
chapter presents a new interpretation of Dewey that emphasizes the role of phenomenal,
contextual, and social factors in the foundations of his logical works.
| Identifer | oai:union.ndltd.org:tamu.edu/oai:repository.tamu.edu:1969.1/3795 |
| Date | 16 August 2006 |
| Creators | Deters, Troy Nicholas |
| Contributors | McDermott, John J. |
| Publisher | Texas A&M University |
| Source Sets | Texas A and M University |
| Language | en_US |
| Detected Language | English |
| Type | Book, Thesis, Electronic Thesis, text |
| Format | 246993 bytes, electronic, application/pdf, born digital |
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