杜威的真理概念與他的探究理論（the theory of inquiry）密切相關。透過探究理論，真理被定義為一個成功探究的結果（consequences）；所謂的成功的探究，即是指在探究過程中，觀念受到實際操作上的檢驗，並且被證實為是一個有效的∕有用的問題解決方案的時候，此時，這個受檢驗觀念的最後結果——判斷（或說，受保證的斷言）即是真的。 由此而來的真理定義具有某些優勢：它應用在教育上，幫助了學生在學習中能夠切實地去「實踐」和「操作」解決問題的方法，使學習與實踐、學習者與身處其中的情境，密切地交織在一起。然而，杜威對真理的看法卻隱含了其他的問題：首先，實用主義的真理觀為了要確認根據觀念而來的操作的結果，它其實暗中預設了（與實在）符應的真理理論；其次，由於真理的判準在於結果的有用性或有效性，據此，真理失去了固定的、永恆的價值，這使得杜威的真理理論很有可能導向於一種相對主義的真理觀。 本文主張，杜威的真理概念應該與傳統的哲學有更好的融合。杜威強調經驗、實踐、與情境互動等理念，以及他的科學的、實驗的方法，其實可以與傳統符應論的真理觀相互補充引發，而不需要以敵對的態度來視之。此外，在相對主義的問題上，杜威的真理理論確實展現了某些矛盾之處。但無論其他研究者們如何看待真理的問題，根據本文的推論，杜威本身並無意於一種對真理概念的相對主義。真理的相對主義在教育上亦容易導致弊端：它會讓學生失去對相互討論、交流以達至一個共同理解之真理的理想；讓學生固守於己身所持意見之「絕對」，而忽視來自他者的不同看法；它更有可能讓學生輕視對真理的學習，將各種真理視為一些破碎的、臨時的各種假設而已，而這些情況絕非是杜威所樂見的！

Dewey’s concept of truth is closely related to his theory of inquiry. According to this theory of inquiry, truth is defined as a consequence of successful inquiries. If an idea is tested in practice and proved to be an effective/useful solution to a problem, the inquiry of this idea is successful; now the final result of this very idea—judgment (or guaranteed assertion)—is true. Such a definition of truth has some advantages; in education, it helps students to actually “practice’ and “operate” the solutions of problems, making learning and practice as well as students and their situations intimately woven into one another. However, there are some other problems inherent in Dewey’s view of truth; first, it secretly assumes a corresponding theory of truth, and, second, the judgment of truth is founded on its usefulness or effectiveness. Accordingly, truth loses its value of being fixed and eternal, which likely orients Dewey’s theory of truth to a kind of relativist view of truth. Here we claim that Dewey’s concept of truth should be better fused with traditional philosophy. Dewey emphasized that such ideas as experience, practice and contextual interaction along with his scientific and experimental methods could actually mutually complement and inspire with the traditional theory of correspondence and concept of truth, instead of mutually opposing. Moreover, in terms of relativism, Dewey’s theory of truth did show some contradictions. But no matter how other scholars see the question of truth, according our inference, Dewey himself was not into any kind of relativist concept of truth. Applied to education, relativism of truth can easily lead to malpractice, the students may lose the ideal of reaching a mutually understood truth through discussion and interflow, stick to the absoluteness of their own opinions while ignoring different opinions from others, and even more possibly, make the students look down on the learning of truth while seeing it as some fragmented, tentative hypotheses, which is definitely not what Dewey was happy to see.