Beyond realism and antirealism?

the strange case of Dewey's instrumentalism

Giovanni Rubeis

pp. 67-82

in: Friedrich Stadler, Niels Weidtmann, Sami Pihlström (eds), Logical empiricism and pragmatism, Berlin, Springer, 2017

Abstract

The following article aims to shed a light on the role of instrumentalism in John Dewey's epistemology as well as philosophy of science. Its basic conclusion is that Dewey can be considered an unorthodox realist, following the terminology by Godfrey-Smith , and that his instrumentalist position can be interpreted as a problem-solving approach (Laudan ) to science. The connection to Logical Empiricism lies in Hans Reichenbach 's analysis of Dewyan instrumentalism.

Cited authors

Reichenbach Hans

Dewey John