A Study On Dewey's Aesthetic Experience

What is aesthetic experience and how does it happen?The whole book of Art as Experience can be seen as an answer to these questions.Dewey's theory of aesthetic experience is the research topic of this paper.If the concept of experience is the core concept of all Dewey's philosophy,then aesthetic experience is the core concept of Dewey's aesthetics.By focusing on the concept of aesthetic experience,Dewey gained enough features to distinguish him from all other aesthetics.By defining art as aesthetic experience,Dewey shifted the focus of aesthetics from art as objective item and material object to human experience.Under the influence of traditional dualist philosophy,there are many dichotomy and binary oppositions.One of the most important consequences of aesthetics based on dualist philosophy is to objectify the aesthetic object,thus artificially dividing and opposing the self and the aesthetic object.The center of art becomes art works,and art works are put into museums,further separated from human life and experience.Dewey's aesthetics is the complete opposite of this dualist aesthetics:for Dewey,the essence and value of art exist not only in works of art,but in the empirical behavior of creating and perceiving their dynamics and development.By granting the privilege of the aesthetic process over the work,art is defined as an empirical quality rather than as a collection of objects,or as a substantial essence Shared only by these objects;The aesthetic experience thus becomes the cornerstone of the philosophy of art.What is Dewey's aesthetic experience?Using the analytical framework of Richard Shusterman as the coordinate,this paper summarizes the seven dimensions of Dewey's aesthetic experience:1)pleasure and value,2)phenomenological character,3)demarcation/transformation,4)perception and knowledge,5)varieties of unity,6)intensities of feeling,7)self-possessed assessment vs.self-surrendering absorption.From these seven dimensions,we can grasp Dewey's concept of aesthetic experience as a whole.On the whole,Dewey aesthetics is different from analytical aesthetics,which strives for clarity and accuracy.Schusterman's seven dimensions can be regarded as a theoretical summary of all aestheticians' exploration of the concept of aesthetic experience in the history of aesthetics.At the same time,these seven dimensions also cover the most important aspects of Dewey's concept of aesthetic experience.How to achieve aesthetic experience?The whole of Dewey's Art as Experience is an answer to this question.Aesthetic experience is not any special type of experience,but the perfect state that all experience can achieve.In Dewey's view,aesthetic experience originates from ordinary daily experience.This paper starts from three aspect:"emotion and expression","substance and form" and "organization of rhythm and energy" to analyzes how to achieve aesthetic experience.At the same time,this is the general structure of Art as Experience.Of course,how to achieve aesthetic experience has the nature of practice,even if all the conditions have been guaranteed.it is not necessary that everyone will achieve aesthetic experience.That is,the science of aesthetics is not at issue here.