On the Natural Roots of the "Aesthetic" in John Dewey and William James

This paper focuses on the peculiar meanings of the word “aesthetic” or “esthetic” in Dewey and James, highlighting the continuity between Dewey’s interpretation of the “esthetic” and James’s uses of the term. More importantly, the paper defends the claim that both philosophers attributed a basically naturalistic meaning to “aesthetic/esthetic”: Dewey saw experience as basically esthetically or qualitatively characterized, insofar it is connected to the biological conditions of life in an environment that directly affects the very existence of organisms. James primarily used the term “aesthetic” in connection to pain and pleasure, i.e., to refer to a living being’s physiological predisposition to feel and select certain features of the surrounding world, by assuming specific attitudes toward given situations. Moreover, both authors conceived of the aesthetic in a narrower sense, i.e., in relation to the arts, as the development, enhancement or refinement of the naturally aesthetic features of human experience, denying any a priori distinction between the two spheres. After clarifying the meanings of the word “esthetic” in Dewey’s work in relation to his theory of experience and aesthetic qualities, the paper explores the uses of the word “aesthetic” in James’s texts, particularly with reference to his theory of temperament and his conception of emotions. The last section focuses on the influence exercised on James’s vocabulary by the work of Alexander Bain and suggests the risky yet plausible hypothesis that Edmund Burke’s physiological aesthetics may have played a role in the way James approached the word, although the term “aesthetic” is missing in Burke’s text.