杜威极其强调语言的重要性。他认为语言产生于经验,这些经验包括生物在进化过程中对自然的有模式的反应。从后果论的角度看,这些反应模式有助于保存生命,因而是有着隐晦意义的模式。在杜威看来,推论就是一项人类活动,那些生物性反应的模式中也有着隐晦的推论。通过有着共同目标的人际协作,隐晦的意义被清晰化,在这一过程中语言逐步形成。在成熟的语言形成之后,语言可以用来使得那些隐晦的意义和推论进一步清晰化为规则或规范。杜威的语言观也为克服当代哲学中自然主义和推论主义之间的裂隙提供了一条有益思路。 Dewey places great emphasis on the importance of language. He believes that language is derived from experience, which includes the biological reaction of a creature to nature in its evolutionary process. From the consequences point of view, these modes of response help preserve life and thus have a subtle meaning. In Dewey’s opinion, inference is a human activity, and there are subtle inferences about the patterns of biological responses. Obscure meanings are clarified through interpersonal collaboration with common goals, in which language is gradually being formed. After a mature language is formed, the language can be used to make those obscure meanings and inferences further sharpened into rules or norms. Dewey’s linguistic view also provides a useful way of thinking to overcome the gap between naturalism and corollaryism in contemporary philosophy.