John Dewey, answered from the texts and cited to the page.
The problematic situation — this is the concept that lies, as I have said, far back of many of the specific questions one might raise about inquiry, habit, and the nature of thought itself. Situation stands for something inclusive of a large number of diverse elements existing across wide areas of space and long periods of time, but which, nevertheless, have their own unity.
It is not a momentary stimulus, not a discrete object confronting an isolated knower.1 When you and I correspond, the letters we exchange are conspicuous features of the situation, but far from being the only or even the chief ones; into each exchange have entered teachers, books, articles, and all the contacts which have shaped the views that now find themselves in disagreement.2
The situation is that whole complex — not merely what is immediately before us. Problematic qualifies a situation when something in it is questionable, hence provocative of investigation, examination, discussion — in short, inquiry. The word covers a great variety of occasions: the features designated by such adjectives as confusing, perplexing, disturbed, unsettled, indecisive; and by such nouns as jars, hitches, breaks, blocks — all incidents occasioning an interruption of the smooth, straightforward course of behavior and deflecting it into the kind of behavior constituting inquiry.34
Here the connection to habit becomes essential. So long as habit works, so long as there is no conflict, there is no occasion for thought — action becomes automatic and no thought is required.5 But when something goes awry, when habit no longer works, then we must think. The problematic situation is precisely that blockage: the occasion for the operation of intelligence, for deliberation and reflection.6
What follows is not mere private cogitation. The unsettled, indecisive character of the situation affects all of the subject-matters that enter into inquiry — on one hand, the observed existing facts taken to locate and delimit the problem; on the other, all the suggestions, surmises, ideas entertained as possible solutions.7 Our first task is the recognition of what the problem actually is — the diagnosis of the difficulty — which usually requires an inquiry into the character of the situation and a reconceptualization of it.8
Only then does deliberation proceed: the dramatic rehearsal of alternative possible courses of action, each elaborated hypothetically so that we may see fully what the adoption of a given alternative would require.9 And we are not guaranteed success. We may not find a prospective course of action that promises a solution, or we may find one but be unable to put it into effect; the choice that seems rational may not work out in practice.10
This is why testing is necessary — until we test, we have hypotheses only, and that the end we seek will be attained can only be known by actual verification.11 The problematic situation is, in short, the natural unit of experience from which inquiry grows and to which it returns. It is not a puzzle inside a mind; it is a real feature of a real transaction between an organism and an environment that has gone unsettled.
Every closure is an awakening, and every awakening settles something — but the settling begins here, in the recognition that something has gone genuinely wrong.
'Situation' stands for something inclusive of a large number of diverse elements existing across wide areas of space and long periods of time, but which, nevertheless, have their own unity.Knowing and the Known + Essays, pp. 281–282
Your letter to me and what I am writing in response are evidently parts of that to which I have given the name 'situation'; while these items are conspicuous features of the situation they are far from being the only or even the chief ones. In each case there is prolonged prior study: into this study have entered teachers, books, articles, and all the contacts which have shaped the views that now find themselves in disagreement with each other.Knowing and the Known + Essays, pp. 281–282
That word stands for the existence of something questionable, and hence provocative of investigation, examination, discussion—in short, inquiry.Knowing and the Known + Essays, pp. 281–282
It covers the features that are designated by such adjectives as confusing, perplexing, disturbed, unsettled, indecisive; and by such nouns as jars, hitches, breaks, blocks—in short, all incidents occasioning an interruption of the smooth, straightforward course of behavior and that deflect it into the kind of behavior constituting inquiry.Knowing and the Known + Essays, pp. 281–282
So long as habit works, so long as there is no conflict, there is no occasion for thought—indeed, action becomes automatic and no thought is required.Human Nature and Conduct
The creation of a problem situation provides the occasion for the operation of intelligence, in other words, for deliberation and reflection.Human Nature and Conduct
The unsettled, indecisive character of the situation with which inquiry is compelled to deal affects all of the subjectmatters that enter into all inquiry. It affects, on the one hand, the observed existing facts that are taken to locate and delimit the problem; on the other side, it affects all of the suggestions, surmises, ideas that are entertained as possible solutions of the problem.Knowing and the Known + Essays, pp. 281–282
Our first task is the recognition of what the problem is—the diagnosis of the difficulty which confronts us—and this usually requires an inquiry into the character of the situation and a reconceptualization of it.Human Nature and Conduct
Deliberation requires as well, and in part simultaneously, the 'dramatic rehearsal' of alternative possible courses of action which might resolve the conflict... Each of these alternatives... must then be elaborated hypothetically—that is, as an hypothesis—to work out just what consequences it involves.Human Nature and Conduct
We may not succeed in finding a prospective course of action which promises a solution, or we may find one but not be able to put it into effect. Even more important, we may be wrong; the choice that seems rational may not work out in practice.Human Nature and Conduct
This is of course why testing is necessary, why we must actually try out the chosen plan of action and see what happens. Until we test, we have hypotheses only; that the end we seek will be attained can only be known by actual verification, by testing out the proposed course of action and comparing the results with our expectations.Human Nature and Conduct