Art as Experience

Dewey writes that Art as Experience grew out of a series of lectures he delivered in 1931 at Harvard University on the topic of “The Philosophy of Art.” He says the lecture series was founded in memory of the American philosopher and psychologist William James, and Dewey is honored to have his work linked with James. Dewey acknowledges the many intellectual influences behind the book, writing: “I am somewhat embarrassed in an effort to acknowledge indebtedness to other writers on the subject” (vii). He credits specific colleagues for their input, including Joseph Ratner, Meyer Schapiro, Irwin Edman, and Sidney Hook. His says his greatest debt is to A.C. Barnes, whose conversations and educational work at the Barnes Foundation shaped Dewey’s thinking on aesthetics.

Dewey argues that established works of art have come to limit aesthetic theory because they’re treated as fixed, eternal products that exist outside of life—objects on “pedestals”—rather than as events in experience. People tend to identify the artwork with the physical artifact, yet “the actual work of art is what the product does with and in experience” (3). In other words, art is the experience of people creating and perceiving with full engagement rather than just the physical product itself.