The Logic Of Inquiry

The problems John Dewey faced were the problems which the traditional logic or philosophy did not finished in history, and the inquiry theory was the way which Dewey used to resolve these problems. Dewey thought that the action of inquiry through every aspects of human live. In the progress of inquiry, some instrumental things to be produced and be useful to the live survive of human, and logic is one of the products of inquiry also. The theory of Dewey not only denied the traditional opinions that logic was something priori, but also described logic as a thing which both had instrumental and development:it was the periodically product of the action of inquiry, and it also the instrument which the action of inquiry could use it to go on.Dewey used his own way to write his logic theory, and this way was so different to the traditional or modern way. Dewey did not use formalized way to study logic problem, the way Dewey used was description. On one hand, this way showed the Dewey’s consistent writing style, on the other hand, it was the inner requirement of his logic theory.This paper try to understand Dewey’s logic theory, based on the analysis and comment of the inquiry theory. On the mean time, the paper try to do some critically study of the theory of inquiry, it means some questions and deeper comments. The paper also uses a utility way to study some concepts or problems, based on Dewey’s inquiry theory. This paper has five chapters, and they could be divided to three parts. The first part is the first chapter. It has studied related documents and shows the research situation about this subject at home and abroad. The second part is the chapter two, chapter three and chapter four; it is mainly about Dewey’s inquiry theory. The paper thinks that as the logic of his philosophy, Dewey’s inquiry theory is not only the corn theory of his pragmatism philosophy, but also a subversive modern logic theory. In this part, the paper discussed and evaluated some com concepts of Dewey’s inquiry theory, such as inquiry, logic, the two matrixes of inquire, judgment, proposition and so on.The third part is chapter five. As a critically study, the main point of chapter five is question, utility study and recommends to Dewey’s writing style. In the part of question, the paper analysis or puts questions to some topics, such as the stipulation and randomicity in logic theory, the use of prior thing to logic, quest as metaphysical power, and the way Dewey deal logic problems. The paper thinks that there exists some places which worth to be thought more. In the part of utility study, the paper tries to study three concepts or problems such as question, logic, and emotion, then has a deeper understanding about Dewey’s philosophy in the progress of practice.