While the 3rd chapter of Art As Experience got off to a slow start, mid-way through I discovered a number of passages that could serve as a starting point for class discussion. The first several pages broadly explore the nature of emotion in relation to experience; the following quote on page 43 jumped out at me.
“…emotions are attached to events and objects in their movement. They are not, save in pathological instances, private. And even an “objectless” emotion demands something beyond itself to which to attach itself, and thus it soon generates a delusion in lack or something real.” (43)
Lack is one of those “reserved words” in psychology and the psychoanalytic theories of Lacan and Freud, and its interesting to see the term used by Dewey in relation to experiences & emotions.
Another quote I was excited by - I find the choice of the word “dye” to conjure powerful imagery.
“Emotion is the moving and cementing of force. It selects what is congruous and dyes what is selected with its color, thereby giving qualitative unity to materials externally disparate and dissimilar. It thus provides unity in and through the varied parts of an experience…” (44)
On the subject of expressing emotions, Dewey clearly privileges the role of art -
“Where should we look for an account of such an experience? Not to ledger-entries nor yet to a treatise on economics or sociology or personnel-psychology, but to drama and fiction. Its nature and import can be expressed only by art, because there is a unity of experience that can be expressed only as an experience” (44)
I buy it, give me more Dewey.
“The outline of the common pattern is set by the fact that every experience is the result of interaction between a live creature and some aspect of the world in which he lives.” (45)
Do I see a tie-in between the Live Creature and companion species? This makes me wonder about other live creatures that could serve as a companion species outside of the animal kingdom. You all know what I’m talking about - yes, fungi.
The last quote I’ll share can be found in the middle of page 47; Dewey praises the complexity of the work of a painter, claiming that,
“the production of a genuine work of art probably demands more intelligence than does most of the the so-called thinking that goes on among those who pride themselves on being “intellectuals.” (47)
I interpret Dewey’s choice of the word “genuine” as an implicit statement that he, like everybody else, has inherent preferences and biases, based on one’s environment and experiences. He, like everyone else, is subjective in their artistic taste. In any case, Dewey loves artists, and is on my side.