Time and the Creative Act

Abstract

This essay makes the case that one of the most significant errors in aesthetic theory is its failure to account for art as a creative act that emerges from the temporal flow of lived experience. Drawing on John Dewey’s aesthetics and contemporary poetics, it articulates a view of creative action in terms of temporal experience. It begins by showing why time must be considered central to aesthetic theory, drawing a connection between time and what Dewey calls the logic of qualitative thought. It then distinguishes between time as a temporal ordering and time as a temporal quality of creative action. Finally, it argues that creative action is only possible because it is a temporally emergent process that is qualitatively experienced. As a result of placing temporality at its core, aesthetic theory shifts from a concern with the products of the art world to the practices of creative action.