John Dewey's Theory of Aesthetic Meaning

Dissertation, Emory University (1984)
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Abstract

Dewey's mature philosophy places aesthetics in a central role. Dewey's own aesthetic theory has been charged by Stephen Pepper, Benedetto Croce, and others as being an inconsistent intrusion of idealism into Dewey's naturalistic instrumentalism. "The Pepper-Croce Thesis" focuses in particular on Dewey's concept of aesthetic meaning, which seems at once to maintain that meaning, which is relational and mediatory, can also be qualitative and immediate. Art, for Dewey, is expressive and communicative of meaning. Instead of dismissing Dewey's views as contradictory, I contend that by examining Dewey's concept of aesthetic meaning, not only are the confusions of the Pepper-Croce Thesis resolved, but that an important new perspective for a consistent interpretation of Dewey's thought is set forth. ;After reviewing and evaluating the major criticisms of the Pepper-Croce Thesis, I examine Dewey's earliest idealist system to discover possible underlying similarities between it and his later aesthetics. Though striking parallels can be found, two far more significant claims can be made. First, from the very start Dewey set out to articulate a position which would do justice to the full, rich, lived experience of meaning and value in the world. Second, Dewey first embraced, then modified, then abandoned idealism for his instrumentalism precisely because he saw it as theoretically inadequate for this task. ;I then proceed to examine Dewey's mature theory in light of this quest. The third chapter thus explores Dewey's methodology and metaphysics. Instrumentalism as methodology is seen to be far richer than the narrow means-ends approach it is often taken to be. Not only does it rely on a quasi-phenomenological attitude, but it leads directly to Dewey's metaphysical inquiry, the description of the "generic traits" of existence. This in turn establishes Dewey's metaphysics of situations, a position which stresses continuity in nature and experience. Nature, for Dewey, has both order and dynamism, structure and creativity, relation and quality. This "naturalistic emergentism" takes creative growth as its guiding concept. ;Dewey's theory of meaning is seen to follow from his views on continuity and situations. Meaning is first and foremost creative interaction with or participation in a social situation. While meaning depends on certain biological and habitual structures, not to mention social and cultural conventions, it is primarily creative and developmental, operating in a intelligible context which provides sense. Sense is both immediate and mediating, it is sensed and makes sense at once. This power of experience to become fraught with immediate sense is what develops into aesthetic awareness. . . . UMI

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