are being developed in order to better understand the situation and solve future problems.Having to constantly revise models and theories in light of new information would also be in accordance with Dewey's philosophy. Dewey did not believe that solutions to problems were permanent. Things change and expand, and new solutions are required for dealing with new problems. It was this mentality which made Dewey applicable to so many areas of life. For Dewey, all ideas were hypotheses or tentative solutions that were true if they satisfied the conditions of the problem. In Dewey's opinion, if a current equation and/or economic model does not explain the current situation, then it is time to develop a better hypothesis that does solve the problem.Moreover, by looking closely at political science one can see more of Dewey's influence on the social sciences. Dewey saw past experiences as a method for transforming the world. Through group discussion and analysis in my political science class, we tried to look at the intrinsic connections that existed between these past experiences. We looked at policies and forms of government that are 'working' now and compared them to policies and forms of government that have failed. However, the American politics class I took was Deweyan only to a point. For several days, Dewey would have been pleased with the class. We discussed democracy as a social good. We looked at ways of making the government more representative of the people. We examined methods for increasing voter turn out. Unfortunately, what was very frustrating was that I never felt like we made any real progress. Sure, we talked a lot. We even came up with hypotheses, but when it came time to actually go out and work for what we talked about very few people were up for it. By never testing our newly formed hypotheses, we never knew for sure if they were practical enough to work in the real world. We never completed the testing pa...
