Design research involving practice (i.e., practice-based and practice-led research) can be seen to offer a unique approach to knowledge production grounded in imagination and transformation. Yet, in spite of this apparent uniqueness, the approach largely lacks a justificatory epistemological narrative—a way of describing and qualifying its underlying theory of knowledge. It takes the view that any attempt to frame such a narrative requires deep philosophic engagement. This article aims to cohere the perspectives of three key philosophers—Dewey, Wittgenstein, and Heidegger—drawing their voices together around the coupled themes of experience-being, language-meaning, and knowing-truth and representing the whole in design terms.

This article draws an alignment between John Dewey's Pragmatism and design inquiry or, particularly, research which incorporates design practice. Three core components of Dewey's philosophy are described—namely, his theory of inquiry, his theory of communication, and his metaphysics—all of which are seen to interlink to form a unique approach to knowledge. From this, a number of key features of the approach are set out. When held in combination, it is argued that these features hold the potential to enrich the epistemological basis of design inquiry.