Democratic values in the aesthetics of classic American pragmatism

Human Affairs ◽  
2011 ◽  
Vol 21 (4) ◽  
Author(s):  
Krzysztof Skowroński
Keyword(s):  
William James ◽  
Free Expression ◽  
George Herbert ◽  
Democratic Values ◽  
George Herbert Mead ◽  
Political Dimension ◽  
The Arts ◽  
Norms And Values ◽  
The Aesthetic

AbstractIn the present paper an interpretation of the political dimension of pragmatic aesthetic reflection is proposed. The interconnection between politics and aesthetics in three classic American pragmatists: William James (1842–1910), John Dewey (1859–1952), and George Herbert Mead (1863–1931) is evoked. The author claims that by emphasizing the role of democratic values in philosophy and life, the classic American pragmatists encroach upon the field of the arts and aesthetics. Their emphasis put upon individual activity, free expression of thoughts, plurality of the forms of expression, and acceptance of criticism as a tool helping create better solutions in human cooperation can easily be converted into the postulates about the character of the artistic principles and of the nature of the aesthetic norms and values.

Feminist Aesthetics

2021 ◽  
Author(s):  
A. W. Eaton
Keyword(s):  
Aesthetic Judgment ◽  
Male Gaze ◽  
Canon Formation ◽  
Artistic Production ◽  
The Arts ◽  
Female Nude ◽  
Inclusive Approach ◽  
The Aesthetic ◽  
Feminist Aesthetics

This chapter summarizes central issues and themes in feminist philosophical aesthetics in the analytic tradition, although some continental figures are discussed. After introducing the interdisciplinary, intersectional and trans* inclusive approach that feminist aesthetics is starting to take, this essay discusses situatedness, artistic canon formation, humanism vs. gynocentrism, rewriting the philosophical canon, overcoming artworld biases, and the role of the aesthetic in systemic oppression. Specific topics to be discussed include the male gaze, the female nude, the concept of artistic genius, women’s artistic production, the purported universality of correct aesthetic judgment, the sex/gender distinction as it pertains to aesthetics and the arts, and body aesthetics.

Mead, George Herbert (1863–1931)

2018 ◽  
Author(s):  
Hans Joas
Keyword(s):  
Social Psychology ◽  
John Dewey ◽  
William James ◽  
The Self ◽  
George Herbert ◽  
Human Communication ◽  
George Herbert Mead ◽  
American Pragmatism ◽  
Charles Peirce ◽  
Infantile Development

Together with Charles Peirce, William James and John Dewey, George Herbert Mead is considered one of the classic representatives of American pragmatism. He is most famous for his ideas about the specificities of human communication and sociality and about the genesis of the ‘self’ in infantile development. By developing these ideas, Mead became one of the founders of social psychology and – mostly via his influence on the school of symbolic interactionism – one of the most influential figures in contemporary sociology. Compared to that enormous influence, other parts of his philosophical work are relatively neglected.

scholarly journals A Sketch on Daisaku Ikeda as a Jamesian Psychologist of Religion

Religions ◽  
2019 ◽  
Vol 10 (11) ◽  
pp. 607
Author(s):  
Kim
Keyword(s):  
William James ◽  
Psychology Of Religion ◽  
Common Concern ◽  
Secular World ◽  
The Arts

This essay attempts to determine whether Daisaku Ikeda can be seen as a Jamesian psychologist of religion. Concerning the development of this essay, it first focuses on a common concern that exists if we look at the work of William James and the Psychology of Religion in terms of how it exists as a distinct movement and how it is related to Ikeda’s perception of religion within a secular world. Next, this essay articulates his notion of self and the role of mediating symbols as this exists, especially in religion, in discourse, and in the arts in correspondence and relation to James’ Psychology of Religion. Finally, this essay critically raises questions that point to further developments as regards the thesis of this article.

Countersystem Analysis and the Construction of Alternative Futures

2003 ◽  
Vol 21 (3) ◽  
pp. 210-235 ◽  
Author(s):  
Gideon Sjoberg ◽  
Elizabeth A. Gill ◽  
Leonard D Cain
Keyword(s):  
George Herbert ◽  
Niklas Luhmann ◽  
George Herbert Mead ◽  
Alternative Futures ◽  
Early Modernity ◽  
Theoretical Inquiry ◽  
Anthony Giddens ◽  
The Future ◽  
Point Of Departure

This essay explicates the role of countersystem analysis as an essential mode of social inquiry. In the process, particular attention is given to the place of negation and the future. One underlying theme is the asymmetry between the negative and the positive features of social activities, the negative being more readily identifiable empirically than the positive. A corollary theme, building on the observations of George Herbert Mead, is: one engages the present through experience; one engages the future through ideas. Furthermore, as Anthony Giddens, Ulrich Beck, and Niklas Luhmann suggest, we in late modernity seem to be facing a future that is more contingent than it was in early modernity. After articulating the foundations of the mode of inquiry we term “countersystem analysis,” we employ Karl Mannheim as a point of departure for critically surveying a constellation of scholars—conservatives as well as reformers—who have relied upon some version of countersystem analysis in addressing the future. Such an orientation serves to advance not only theoretical inquiry but empirical investigation as well.

A Mayan ontology of poultry: Selfhood, affect, animals, and ethnography

2011 ◽  
Vol 40 (4) ◽  
pp. 427-454 ◽  
Author(s):  
Paul Kockelman
Keyword(s):  
Political Economy ◽  
William James ◽  
Linguistic Anthropology ◽  
Charles Sanders Peirce ◽  
Ethnographic Research ◽  
George Herbert ◽  
George Herbert Mead ◽  
Cloud Forests ◽  
The World

AbstractThis article has three key themes: ontology (what kinds of beings there are in the world), affect (cognitive and corporeal attunements to such entities), and selfhood (relatively reflexive centers of attunement). To explore these themes, I focus on women's care for chickens among speakers of Q'eqchi' Maya living in the cloud forests of highland Guatemala. Broadly speaking, I argue that these three themes are empirically, methodologically, and theoretically inseparable. In addition, the chicken is a particularly rich site for such ethnographic research because it is simultaneously self, alter, and object for its owners. To undertake this analysis, I adopt a semiotic stance towards such themes, partly grounded in the writings of the American pragmatists Charles Sanders Peirce, William James, and George Herbert Mead, and partly grounded in recent and classic scholarship by linguists, psychologists, and anthropologists. (Linguistic anthropology, political economy, ontology, affect, selfhood, animals, chickens, Mesoamerica, Maya, Q'eqchi')*

scholarly journals Aesthetic Factor of Customer Perception and Its Role in Managing Company Competitiveness

2021 ◽  
pp. 193-200
Author(s):  
S. A. Afonsky
Keyword(s):  
Aesthetic Value ◽  
Public Places ◽  
Customer Perception ◽  
Goods And Services ◽  
Art Object ◽  
The Arts ◽  
The Aesthetic ◽  
Aesthetic Values ◽  
Made In

The article advances the idea about a drop in people interest in buying similar goods and services, especially in conditions of uncertainty, in particular corona-virus epidemic, when people care less about external things, such as their clothes for visiting public places. Today we observe the necessity in meeting aesthetic needs through different tools and artistic objects. Therefore, we can say that it is a certain return to those times, when in public places and even in the Underground you can see real works of art that were not made in a hurry, according to the principle ‘the cheaper the better', but those of full value. In spring 2021 we conducted a survey of students of the Russian Plekhanov University of Economics and the Arts College RGGU to find the role of the aesthetic (emotional, sensual) element - the art-object (in this case - a poster) - in conditions of uncertainty, i. e. COVID-19 epidemic. The findings of this research showed that aesthetic value of graphics takes a foreground, it should be connected with specialization of the trade enterprise, its historic and other factors. The author demonstrates that availability of aesthetic values can form a motivating platform for repeated visits to the store and thus shape its competitive advantage.

Whitehead’s Perspectivism as a Basis for Environmental Ethics and Aesthetics

2017 ◽  
Author(s):  
Steve Odin
Keyword(s):  
Environmental Ethics ◽  
Perspective Taking ◽  
George Herbert ◽  
George Herbert Mead ◽  
Ecological Concept ◽  
Moral Agents ◽  
Process Metaphysics ◽  
Moral Perspective ◽  
The Aesthetic ◽  
Poetic Metaphor

There exist parallels between the Buddhist concept of Indra’s Net and the notion of moral perspective-taking. According to Alfred North Whitehead’s process metaphysics, the aesthetic continuum of nature is an organization of perspectives, whereby each occasion is akin to a Leibnizian monad, or metaphysical point, each functioning as a living mirror that reflects the entire universe from its own unique standpoint as a microcosm of the macrocosm. The metaphysical perspectivism underlying Whitehead’s ecological concept of nature along with a brief consideration of how Whitehead’s perspectivism illuminates the Japanese aesthetic concept of nature can be visualized by the poetic metaphor of Indra’s Net. Whitehead’s Leibnizian perspectivism was reformulated by George Herbert Mead, and later by Lawrence Kohlberg and Jürgen Habermas and can be integrated into an ethical procedure for moral perspective-taking, whereby free moral agents learn to put themselves into the perspectives of others in the community.

A Cultural History of Memory in the Eighteenth Century

2020 ◽  
Keyword(s):  
Eighteenth Century ◽  
Cultural History ◽  
French Revolution ◽  
Collective Identity ◽  
Age Of Revolution ◽  
Arts And Sciences ◽  
The Arts ◽  
History Of ◽  
The Aesthetic

The Cultural History of Memory in the Eighteenth Century places in sharp relief the contrast between inspiring ideas that heralded an auspicious future and immemorial traditions that cherished a vanishing past. Waxing large during that era was the European Enlightenment, with its projects for reform and optimistic forecasts about the prospect of making a better world. Heritage was reframed, as martyrs for the cause of religious liberty and heroes for the promotion of the arts and sciences were enshrined in a new pantheon. They served as icons marking a pathway toward a presumed destiny, amid high hopes that reason would triumph over superstition to guide the course of human affairs. Such sentiments gave reformers a new sense of collective identity as an imagined community acting in the name of progress. Against this backdrop, this volume addresses a variety of themes in memory’s multi-faceted domain, among them mnemonic schemes in the transition from theist to scientific cosmologies; memory remodeled in the making of print culture; memory’s newfound resources for introspection; politics reimagined for the modern age; the nature of tradition reconceived; the aesthetics of nostalgia for an aristocracy clinging to a tenuous identity; the lure of far-away places; trauma in an age of revolution; and the emerging divide between history and collective memory. Along the way, contributors address such topics as the idea of nation in early modern politics; the aesthetic vision of Hubert Robert in his garden landscapes; the transforming effects of the interaction between mind and its mnemonic satellites in print media; Shakespeare remembered and commemorated; the role of memory in the redesign of historiography; the mediation of high and popular culture through literature; soul-searching in female autobiography; and commemorative practices during the French Revolution.

scholarly journals Officina: experiments in engaging with the arts

Modern Italy ◽  
2016 ◽  
Vol 21 (2) ◽  
pp. 199-214
Author(s):  
Francesca Billiani
Keyword(s):  
Critical Analysis ◽  
Political Engagement ◽  
Theoretical Framework ◽  
Capitalist Society ◽  
Pivotal Role ◽  
Political Debate ◽  
The Arts ◽  
Organic Intellectual ◽  
The Aesthetic

This article is primarily concerned with interconnections between forms of impegno (political engagement) and aesthetic choices, as they were articulated in the literary and cultural journal Officina. In order to reassess the role of Officina within the Italian cultural and political debate of the day, this article considers two main narratives unfolding in the journal: the aesthetic rejection of Novecentismo, understood as the epitome of artistic autonomy, and the articulation of a form of Marxist impegno suitable for a neo-capitalist society and stemming from the class-based idea of the organic intellectual. Using published and unpublished correspondence, we argue that Officina had a pivotal role in producing a theoretical framework for the conceptualisation of a post-neorealist idea of Marxist critical analysis as well as of intellectual, aesthetic and political engagement.

scholarly journals Dewey After the End of Art

2020 ◽  
Vol 17 (2-3) ◽  
pp. 146-169
Author(s):  
Roberta Dreon
Keyword(s):  
Summer School ◽  
Aesthetic Experience ◽  
Community Life ◽  
Theoretical Level ◽  
The Arts ◽  
The Common ◽  
End Of Art ◽  
Art As Experience ◽  
The Aesthetic

This article explores the significance of Hegel’s aesthetic lectures for Dewey’s approach to the arts. Although over the last two decades some brilliant studies have been published on the “permanent deposit” of Hegel in Dewey’s mature thought, the aesthetic dimension of Dewey’s engagement with Hegel’s heritage has not yet been investigated. This inquiry will be developed on a theoretical level as well as on the basis of a recent discovery: in Dewey’s Correspondence traces have been found of a lecture on Hegel’s Aesthetics delivered in 1891 within a summer school run by a scholar close to the so-called St. Louis Hegelians. Dewey’s deep and long-standing acquaintance with Hegel’s Aesthetics supports the claim that in his mature book, Art as Experience, he originally appropriated some Hegelian insights. First, Dewey shared Hegel’s strong anti-dualistic and anti-autonomistic conception of the arts, resisting post-Kantian sirens that favored instead an interpretation of art as a separate realm from ordinary reality. Second, they basically converged on an idea of the arts as inherently social activities as well as crucial contributions to the shaping of cultures and civilizations, based on the proximity of the arts to the sensitive nature of man. Third, this article argues that an original re-consideration of Hegel’s thesis of the so-called “end of art” played a crucial role in the formulation of Dewey’s criticism of the arts and of the role of aesthetic experience in contemporary society. The author suggests that we read Dewey’s criticism of the removal of fine art “from the scope of the common or community life” (lw 10, 12) in light of Hegel’s insight that the experience of the arts as something with which believers or citizens can immediately identify belongs to an irretrievable past.

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