Dewey and the Aesthetic Unconscious: The Vital Depths of Experience

183 Pages·2022·1.112 MB·English

by  Bethany Henning

Dewey and the Aesthetic
Unconscious
AMERICAN PHILOSOPHY SERIES
Series Editor
John J. Kaag, University of Massachusetts Lowell
Advisory Board
Charlene Haddock Siegfried, Marilyn Fischer, Scott Pratt,
Douglas Anderson, Erin McKenna, and Mark Johnson
The American Philosophy Series at Lexington Books features cutting-edge
scholarship in the burgeoning field of American philosophy. Some of the vol-
umes in this series are historically oriented and seek to reframe the American
canon’s primary figures: James, Peirce, Dewey, and DuBois, among others.
But the intellectual history done in this series also aims to reclaim and discover
figures (particularly women and minorities) who worked on the outskirts of
the American philosophical tradition. Other volumes in this series address
contemporary issues—cultural, political, psychological, educational—using
the resources of classical American pragmatism and neo-pragmatism. Still
others engage in the most current conceptual debates in philosophy, explain-
ing how American philosophy can still make meaningful interventions in
contemporary epistemology, metaphysics, and ethical theory.
Recent Titles in the Series:
Dewey and the Aesthetic Unconscious: The Vital Depths of Experience, by
Bethany Henning
Pragmatic Philosophy of Religion: Melioristic Case Studies, by Ulf
Zackariasson
Endurance Sport and the American Philosophical Tradition, by Douglas R.
Hochstetler
Pragmatist and American Philosophical Perspectives on Resilience, edited
by Kelly A. Parker and Heather E. Keith
Reconstructing the Personal Library of William James: Markings and
Marginalia from the Harvard Library Collection, by Ermine L.
Algaier IV
Rorty, Religion, and Metaphysics, by John Owens
Ontology after Philosophical Psychology: The Continuity of Consciousness
in William James’s Philosophy of Mind, by Michela Bella
Dewey and the
Aesthetic Unconscious
The Vital Depths of Experience
Bethany Henning
LEXINGTON BOOKS
Lanham • Boulder • New York • London
Published by Lexington Books
An imprint of The Rowman & Littlefield Publishing Group, Inc.
4501 Forbes Boulevard, Suite 200, Lanham, Maryland 20706
www.rowman.com
86-90 Paul Street, London EC2A 4NE
Copyright © 2022 by The Rowman & Littlefield Publishing Group, Inc.
All rights reserved. No part of this book may be reproduced in any form or by any elec-
tronic or mechanical means, including information storage and retrieval systems, without
written permission from the publisher, except by a reviewer who may quote passages
in a review.
British Library Cataloguing in Publication Information Available
Library of Congress Cataloging-in-Publication Data
Names: Henning, Bethany, author.
Title: Dewey and the aesthetic unconscious : the vital depths of experience /
Bethany Henning.
Description: Lanham : Lexington Books, [2022] | Series: American philosophy series |
Includes bibliographical references and index.
Identifiers: LCCN 2021060731 (print) | LCCN 2021060732 (ebook) |
ISBN 9781793620217 (cloth) | ISBN 9781793620224 (ebook)
Subjects: LCSH: Dewey, John, 1859–1952. | Aesthetics—Philosophy. | Experience. |
Subconsciousness.
Classification: LCC B945.D44 H39 2022 (print) | LCC B945.D44 (ebook) | DDC
191—dc23/eng/20220127
LC record available at https://lccn.loc.gov/2021060731
LC ebook record available at https://lccn.loc.gov/2021060732
The paper used in this publication meets the minimum requirements of American
National Standard for Information Sciences—Permanence of Paper for Printed Library
Materials, ANSI/NISO Z39.48-1992.
For Janis, who senses the meaning and restores it;
And for Michael, who sees the actual in the light of the possible.

Contents
Acknowledgments ix
Introduction 1
Chapter 1: The Aesthetic Confrontation with Nature 13
Chapter 2: The American Unconscious 35
Chapter 3: The Feel of the Flesh, the Emergence of Mind 63
Chapter 4: Eros and the Primacy of the Aesthetic 97
Chapter 5: Uncomfortable Art and American Trauma:
Reconsidering Dewey’s Unity Thesis 123
Chapter 6: From the Organic Plentitude of Being 145
Bibliography 161
Index 167
About the Author 171
vii

Acknowledgments
Although this book bears my name alone, I am acutely aware of its contents
as series of conversations among a community of philosophers tucked into
the woods of Southern Illinois. Most of us have since left that place, but
the Shawnee National Forest is where I learned that we are indebted to the
environments that support us. I must thank Ken Stikkers for his enthusiasm,
sincerity, and his conviction that respect for the American tradition implies
a critique. Doug Anderson demonstrated the extent to which philosophy can
be earthy, unpretentious, and warm. I am grateful for Sara Beardsworth, who
emboldened my belief that thought can recognize the poignancy of intimate
life and retain its critical character. I owe a particular debt of gratitude for
the continuous support of Thomas Alexander. Tom not only introduced me to
the philosophy of John Dewey, he also taught me about the indivisibility of
reverence and wisdom, and remains a living example of the reciprocal nature
of teaching, scholarship, and the rest of the work of living. His suggestion
that I think of philosophy as a “service to the gods” is a lesson that deepens
and expands through time, and through practice.
I would also like to thank the Society for the Advancement of American
Philosophy for their hospitality and generosity, and their steadfast belief in
the value of conversation and community.
I am particularly indebted to Richard Polt, who read most of this manu-
script in several phases of its development, and spoke with me about its
contents without any visible signs of fatigue. His friendship these last three
years have sustained me, and our disagreements have catalyzed new curiosi-
ties and revealed as many possibilities as our accords. I am also grateful to
Karl Stukenberg for his insight, and for entertaining an unfamiliar theory of
the unconscious.
There is no collaborator who has been as consistent and as patient as my
wife, Janis, who is more sensitive to the omnipresence and the weight of
aesthetic meaning than anyone I’ve known.
ix