Dewey’s Art as Experience

Abstract

AbstractFor most people, mobile phones and various forms of personal information technology (PIT) have become standard equipment for everyday life. Recent theorists raise psychological and sociological concerns about such technologies, but deeper philosophical work is needed. Here, I take a pragmatic approach to examining the effects of PIT upon experience. I briefly rehearse Dewey’s pragmatic account of experience, especially how it differs from “knowledge.” Next, a more complex form of experience is provided: aesthetic experience. Aesthetic experience in its most integrated and salutary form is called “consummatory.” This spectrum within aesthetic experience provide ways to analyze and diagnose how technology is affecting daily experience. There is a brief review of recent findings about PITs and their usage: Impacts how we inhabit the world, conduct relationships, construct self-identity, and take up (or retreat from) solitude, empathy, and conversation. Experience is reincorporated into the discussion because it can help interpret and navigate technology’s effects and habits. Last, previous facts and technology analyses are unified behind something pragmatic: the goal of an aesthetic ideal for daily life.