Dewey's philosophy of questioning: Science, practical reason and democracy

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Abstract

John Dewey's ideas on politics derive from his epistemology of inquiry as practical problem-solving. Dewey's philosophy is important for democratic theory because it emphasizes deliberation through questioning. However, Dewey's philosophy shares with positivism the same conception of answering as exclusively the dissolution of questions. While Dewey's ideas are distinct from positivism in important respects, he rejects a constitutive role for questioning by constructing knowledge as problem-solving via experience. The problem-solving ideal lends itself to a scientific conception of politics. Applying Michel Meyer's philosophy of questioning, problematology, to Dewey's logic, reveals that Dewey's theory of inquiry is itself the product of an inquiry, confirming that questioning plays a constitutive role in knowledge. This suggests a problematological reconstruction of knowledge which extends Dewey's ideas by affirming an enhanced status for questioning. Grounding knowledge in the principle of questioning provides the basis for extending the rhetorical analysis of politics. © 2008 SAGE Publications.
Original languageEnglish
Pages (from-to)49-75
Number of pages26
JournalHistory of the Human Sciences
Volume21
Issue number1
DOIs
Publication statusPublished - Feb 2008

Keywords

  • Democracy
  • John Dewey
  • Michel Meyer
  • Practical reason
  • Problematology
  • Questioning

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