tailieunhanh - THE PERVASIVENESS OF THE AESTHETIC IN ORDINARY EXPERIENCE

To be closed in the strong sense, an entity must satisfy an additional criterion: it must not only be bounded but also, as Dewey describes, exhibit development and culmination of the material within those boundaries. There is also a strong sense of unity: it is the sense in which elements not only must be bound together within clearly defined limits but also must exhibit qualitative similarities. It is clear that Dewey thinks closure and unity in the strong senses are required for something to count as an experience. . | Draft. For definitive version see British Journal of Aesthetics 48 2008 29-44. THE PERVASIVENESS OF THE AESTHETIC IN ORDINARY EXPERIENCE Sherri Irvin I argue that the experiences of everyday life are replete with aesthetic character though this fact has been largely neglected within contemporary aesthetics. As against Dewey s account of aesthetic experience I suggest that the fact that many everyday experiences are simple lacking in unity or closure and characterized by limited or fragmented awareness does not disqualify them from aesthetic consideration. Aesthetic attention to the domain of everyday experience may provide for lives of greater satisfaction and contribute to our ability to pursue moral aims. Contemporary analytic aesthetics has tended to be heavily dominated by discussions of the aesthetic as it relates to art. Most of the relatively few exceptions address the aesthetic in relation to There are of course very good reasons to attend to art and nature artworks and natural environments can give rise to magnificent aesthetic experiences. However unless art and nature are construed quite broadly they play a comparatively small role in many of our everyday lives. This is especially true of the fine art that is encountered in museums theatres and symphony halls which tends to dominate aesthetic discussions of art. If aesthetic experience really were restricted to encounters with art and nature it would be the case that those of us who live and work in urban and suburban environments that are not very thoroughly art-infused live lives rather lacking in aesthetic texture. But I submit that this is false our everyday lives have an aesthetic character that is thoroughgoing and available at every moment should Pervasiveness - 2 we choose to attend to it. The relative neglect of the domain of the everyday within the discipline of aesthetics is unfortunate for this domain offers the prospect of significant satisfactions that are different in character .