Dewey's Transformation Of Epistemology And Its Contemporary Utility

Although contemporary epistemology acknowledges the existence of“knowing how” demonstrated by Ryle,it regards it as atypical knowledge,and constantly tries to regard knowing how as knowing that.Drawing lessons from Dewey's argument on the relationship between knowledge and action,this paper attempts to rethink this situation.Dewey believes that the view of traditional philosophy on knowledge is spectator theory of knowledge.It preinstalls the dualism of the mind and the world,and tries to pursue the certainty of knowledge.Inspired by the modern scientific revolution,especially Darwin's theory of evolution,Dewey advocated that philosophy should quit theoretical certainty and pursue practical certainty,that is,practical utility.Which is the inspiration source of Dewey's reconstruction of the spectator theory of knowledge.Dewey's instrumentalism regards knowledge as tools and action as goals,which criticizes the spectator theory of knowledge.His theory of inquiry describes in detail how actors generate a reliable judgment step by step under the stimulation of an uncertain situation,which is very heuristic for the specific operation of actors.Thus,Dewey realized the reconstruction from spectator theory of knowledge to the actor theory of epistemology.Dewey's reconstruction in epistemology has a series of effects.For actors,"experience","intelligence" and "logic" are three core concepts.We can comprehend the argument about knowledge in modern philosophy through the concept of "experience",define knowing how broadly through the concept of "intelligence",rethink contemporary epistemology through the concept of "logic",and contemplate the gettier problem which occupies an important position in contemporary epistemology through the actor theory of epistemology.