ABSTRACT
The aim of this chapter is to provide a detailed sketch of Dewey’s theory of inquiry, which emphasizes existence as interactional and highlights the difference and connection between secondness and thirdness. Dewey presents the basic framework of this theory in various places throughout his oeuvre, and with each iteration it becomes more intricate. This theory is the common backbone of Dewey’s logic, his pragmatism, and his instrumentalism. It centers on his notion of reflective experience, which is also reflective thinking. Reflective thinking can be differentiated into two types: one of these is concretely focused, the other is abstract. The difference between them he refers to as the logical difference: the difference between concrete and abstract logical forms. However, as aspects of the larger task of inquiry, both types are connected. Further, they are connected to a pre-reflective and post-reflective situation which surrounds reflective thinking. It is here, in this non-reflective experience, that problems emerge which induce reflective thinking. In this theory of inquiry, knowledge is instrumental to the resolution of problems. This continuity between non-reflective experience, concrete reflection and abstract reflection is at the heart of Dewey’s pragmatism, and it is primarily informed by Peirce.
