Pragmatism and the Ideological Basis of the Hypothesis-test Method—— A Discussion Centered around John Dewey

In the field of sociology,the relationship between the hypothesis-test method and pragmatism has not been fully discussed.Starting from John Dewey’s science education course,this paper tries to reveal how pragmatism provides the theoretical support for the hypothesis-test method at the levels of human nature,epistemology,and ontology.Dewey proposed the hypothesis-test method to rebel against Formalism,and applied this method to educational reform and extended it to the entire social sphere.On the one hand,Dewey bases this method on the complex understanding of human nature through pragmatism,and on the other hand,he uses this method to critique traditional knowledge theory and release the vitality of society and civilization.In order to prevent the hypothesis-test method from degenerating into another formalism,Dewey always emphasized the priority of action and individual life,and related the training of methods with the cultivation of personality.A deep discussion of the theoretical roots of the hypothesis-test method will help us understand the historical and cultural premises of the current mainstream research paradigm and supplement the academic discussion on “the localization of Chinese sociology”.