The Pursuit of Certainty (Century Library) -- A Study on the Relationship between Knowledge and Action

Author: (American) John Dewey (Dewey, J.) wrote, translated by Fu Tongxian
Publisher:
Publishing Date: 2005-09-01
Features: The significance of a work and a philosophical tradition not only depends on how contemporaries understand it but also on how later generations understand it. From this consideration, the People's Publishing House of Shanghai, with the consent of Professor Habermas, had me translate the book review I wrote in 1998 for the German translation of The Quest for Certainty into Chinese, as a part of this book. In this article, Habermas provides a summary and analysis of the reception history of Dewey and even the entire American pragmatism philosophy in Germany, which should help us gain a comprehensive understanding of Dewey's work. German philosopher Jürgen Habermas calls Dewey's The Quest for Certainty Dewey's "influential work" and highly praises it. In this book, Dewey discusses the important significance of the intermediary role of bridging the fields of cognition and evaluation. Dewey studies the relationship between knowledge and action, emphasizes the practical significance of knowledge, and points out the inherent connection between theory and practice, which makes knowledge a tool and means for achieving human purposes. The book narrates how the traditional method of distinguishing between knowledge and action affects philosophical concepts, explains how the coordination between conclusions of natural science and value concepts dominates various schools of philosophy, clarifies that science itself is a form of purposeful practical action, and demonstrates that the determination of knowledge is an ongoing pursuit.