Instrumentalism, the Principle of Continuity and the Life Process

Abstract

Abstract. Instrumentalism and the instrumental logic, as developed and reconstructed by John Dewey, Clarence Ayres, and Jacob Bronowski, is a mode of philosophy exceedingly critical of dualistic, teleological, tautological, and atomistic individualistic biases in philosophy and in economic theory. Instead, it has emphasized processual, contextual, and evolutionary systems of analysis, accentuating conceptual linkages, topological connectivity and joint relationships as a basis of rejecting conceptions of scientific neutrality and intellectual “instruments” forged in an insulating and compartmentalizing style. The principle of continuity becomes the key to the truth process and its directly associated theory of instrumental value. Applying this instrumental philosophy to the critical analysis of the utility theory of value underpinning orthodox economic theory not only exposes the theoretical and philosophical failures of the utility approach but also highlights the strengths of the instrumental logic as a reconstructive tool. The “life process of mankind” is most enhanced by distinguishing truth from falsity and by applying warranted knowledge to the examination of social and economic problems and the power institutions which give them an exacerbated life.