Kalle Puolakka | University of Helsinki (original) (raw)

Papers by Kalle Puolakka

Estetika: The European Journal of Aesthetics, 2024

This paper defends the idea that literary works can be vehicles of what has been called experient... more This paper defends the idea that literary works can be vehicles of what has been called experiential knowledge; that is, literary works can offer knowledge of what it is like to have a particular kind of experience. After reviewing some of the critiques this epistemological conception of literature has recently received, I offer a reading of one of its earliest formulations, found in Dorothy Walsh's book Literature and Knowledge (1969), which I believe is still relevant to contemporary discussions on the topic. By combining some key insights from Walsh's account with John Dewey's understanding of experience as a form of undergoing, I argue that literary works can give a sense or a feel of what it is like to experience something, while acknowledging that there are also some important differences between literary and real-world experiences. I illuminate my own understanding of experiential knowledge by analysing the account of the experience of social death in Toni Morrison's novel Beloved (1987). I am especially interested in identifying the stylistic and literary techniques behind the experiential knowledge I believe the novel offers. The paper ends by providing a closer examination of the character of the literary experience underpinning experiential knowledge and by putting forth reasons why experiential knowledge should be considered a serious epistemic notion.

ESPES - The Slovak Journal of Aesthetics, 2023

This discussion piece raises some worries in the view Yuriko Saito develops in her Aesthetics of ... more This discussion piece raises some worries in the view Yuriko Saito develops in her Aesthetics of Care: Practice in Everyday Life (2022), on the role of aesthetics in fostering a way of life, which is infused by a particular kind of care towards the world. My claim is that Saito's theory is haunted by problems similar to those Gregory Currie has recently addressed towards philosophical views on the cognitive value of literature. Like such approaches in Currie's view, Saito's claim that an appropriate kind of aesthetic appreciation nurtures care ethics, too, would benefit from a more empirically grounded inquiry. Moreover, I believe that Currie's sceptical points on the idea of literature as a vehicle for expanding our emphatic capacities are also relevant to Saito's account of the relation between aesthetics and care ethics. I close by sketching a different way of relating aesthetics and ethics from Saito's in terms of the notion of exemplification.

Contemporary Aesthetics, 2022

While numerous literary researchers, readers, authors, and philosophers have tried to articulate ... more While numerous literary researchers, readers, authors, and philosophers have tried to articulate the peculiar feeling of intimacy they have sensed in literary reading, new angles can still be brought to bear on this issue. This paper develops an account of the intimacy of literary reading based on three concepts: silent performance, routine, and trust. By combining an interpretation of the history of silent reading with an understanding of literary reading as a particular kind of performance, I show, in the first part, how a focus on some internal qualities of reading helps to understand its intimate nature. The picture of the intimacy of literary reading emerging from this account is then complemented with a look at the role of routines in our reading lives and of the sense of trust readers can sometimes feel toward authors. All these aspects of literary reading contribute, in different ways, to the sense of intimacy it can involve. The paper ends with a few observations on the state of this intimate experiential sphere in the increasingly digitalizing world.

Social and Technological Aspects of Art: Challenges of the ‘New Normal’, 2022

The Literary Space in the COVID-19 Pandemic Literature's position in the COVID-19 pandemic is fai... more The Literary Space in the COVID-19 Pandemic Literature's position in the COVID-19 pandemic is fairly peculiar compared to many of the other arts. While the pandemic caused an almost complete standstill of the performative arts and many of them are facing even a kind of gradual process of rebuilding after performances with full live audiences are permitted again, literature has remained strangely unaffected. In fact, the effects of the pandemic on literature have been partly quite contrary to those of the other arts. The basic reason is simple: both the production and experience of literature requires very little, if any, real-world human contact. The uneventful life caused by the pandemic also created a fertile ground for the consumption of literature, as people now had more time to read. Although much more research is needed for a comprehensive account of the effects of the pandemic on literary culture, some preliminary data already support these assessments: many people do report having increased the time devoted to reading. 1 The pandemic also shows up in the renewed interest that works like Gabriel García Márquez's One Hundred Years of Solitude (Cien años de soledad, 1967) and Albert Camus' The Plaque (La Peste, 1947) have engendered in readers globally. The attitude people have taken toward literature during the pandemic, however, seems partly divided. For some, the freed time for literature has meant the possibility to explore new territories of literary culture, while for others literary stories have formed a source of comfortable escape amid an unsafe world. It is still too early to make any serious predictions about the long-term effects of the pandemic on people's reading habits and the literary culture in general, but it could, of course, mean a welcome 1 The background material for the introduction of the article has been gathered from the following online sources: "New Stanford study finds reading skills among young students stalled during the pandemic"

Stanford Encyclopedia of Philosophy, 2021

niin & näin, 2020

Ilmestynyt Niin et näin -lehden numerossa 2/2020 Kalle Puolakka Kirjallisuuden tilasta digitaalis... more Ilmestynyt Niin et näin -lehden numerossa 2/2020 Kalle Puolakka Kirjallisuuden tilasta digitaalisena aikana [INGRESSI ALKAA] Lukuisat tilastot osoittavat, että kirjallisuuden lukemiseen käytetään yhä vähemmän aikaa 1 . Pääsyynä tähän kehitykseen on nähty alati digitalisoituva maailmamme, jossa erilaiset digitaaliset laitteet ja niiden mahdollistamat kulttuurin muodot, kuten sosiaalinen media, ovat kasvavissa määrin valtaamassa alaa kirjallisuuden lukemiselta 2 . Tämän kehityksen

Estetika - The Central European Journal of Aesthetics, 2019

Everyday aestheticians have had relatively little to say about literature. Inspired by Peter Kivy... more Everyday aestheticians have had relatively little to say about literature. Inspired by Peter Kivy’s philosophy of literature as laid out in his books The Performance of Reading and Once-Told Tales, I examine reading literature as a part of everyday life. I argue that not only do Kivy’s views help explain the value that avid readers place on their daily silent engagement with a book, but that his philosophy of literature also shows how literary works can have an aesthetic presence in our everyday lives even during periods in-between reading a book. In light of the paper, literary reading turns out to be an artistic routine that fills avid readers’ everyday lives in a very literal sense.

International Journal of Philosophical Studies, 2019

Despite the huge interest in different philosophical questions surrounding literature, particular... more Despite the huge interest in different philosophical questions surrounding literature, particularly analytic philosophers have had relatively little to say about literature's specifically aesthetic character. Peter Kivy has developed this antiaesthetic tendency furthest, ultimately denying that the reading of prose literature has any deep aesthetic content. Building on Alan Goldman's and John Dewey's work on aesthetic experience, I argue that a key literary feature of novels I single out-what I term a replete moment-has the potential to trigger in readers significant aesthetic experiences. Along with revealing aesthetic aspects in reading that Kivy's position does not cover, my account shows that contemplation of the overall structure of the novel is not the sole, more substantial form aesthetic experience can take in the case of reading, as Kivy's formalistic literary aesthetics assumes. This conclusion is argued to be significant also for the general philosophical discussion on aesthetic experience. An analysis of a key passage in John Irving's A Prayer for Owen Meany is an important part of the view of literary aesthetic experience put forth.

Paths from the Philosophy of Art to Everyday Aesthetics, 2019

Building on Thomas Leddy’s interpretation of current everyday aesthetics, I take a critical look ... more Building on Thomas Leddy’s interpretation of current everyday aesthetics, I take a critical look at the position he terms “restrictivism,” concentrating especially on the work of two of its important representatives, Arto Haapala and Ossi Naukkarinen. I begin the paper by providing a glimpse of the everyday of Valery Gergiev, the dynamo conductor famous for his frantic lifestyle, and argue that the kind of everydayness of the everyday which Haapala and Naukkarinen place at the heart of everyday aesthetics is not as necessary and all-encompassing a component of our everyday lives as they assume. Another important part of my argument is an analysis that seeks to uncover some important distinctions between our possible everyday routines. I by no means aim to question the restrictivist understanding of the everyday completely. However, I do believe that the picture of the everyday emerging from my account of Gergiev’s everyday, together with the outline of everyday routines I present, show restrictivism’s scope to be more limited than Haapala and Naukkarinen believe. This conclusion, in turn, clears the way for a more expansionist understanding of everyday aesthetics, such as the one Leddy builds on Dewey’s aesthetics.

Contemporary Aesthetics, 2018

A group of theorists in everyday aesthetics named restrictivists have explicated the notion of th... more A group of theorists in everyday aesthetics named restrictivists have explicated the notion of the everyday in terms of a particular stance of everydayness that they believe in time comes to characterize people's relationship to their daily things and environments. The everyday is revealed to be something habitual and routine, which, despite its ordinariness, provides a pleasurable sense of safety and trust. In this paper, I present a series of considerations drawing on John Dewey's notion of habit on the one hand and Jane Forsey's account of the aesthetics of design on the other that call into question the general image of the everyday present in the restrictivists' work. These examinations, along with a look at the notion of the everyday at the very end of the paper, will, I believe, show that while restrictivism may very well capture some important aspects of everyday life, the structure and character some of its important proponents attach to the everyday does not have the sort of necessity and inevitability as they assume.

Journal of Aesthetics and Phenomenology, 2018

Theodor W. Adorno (1903–1969) is a gigantic figure in musical aesthetics, and many still consider... more Theodor W. Adorno (1903–1969) is a gigantic figure in musical aesthetics, and many still consider his views relevant, not only for analyzing the modernist music he was inspired by and that he inspired himself, but also for more contemporary developments in classical music. John Adams (b. 1947) is arguably the foremost contemporary composer who has tried to break away from the modernist musical language that was still very much dominant when he began his career as a composer, and he has been very outspoken about his antipathy toward the Schoenbergian-inspired compositional techniques that are at the background of Adorno's musical aesthetics, particularly his Philosophy of New Music. By presenting an interpretation of Adams's music that draws on some key aspects of John Dewey's aesthetics – aesthetic experience, rhythm, and his appreciation of common culture – I raise the question of how relevant Adorno's seminal book still is for understanding the aesthetics of the new music of today.

Literature occupies a peculiar position in contemporary culture. While statistics show that the a... more Literature occupies a peculiar position in contemporary culture. While statistics show that the amount of time that people spend on reading literature in general has dropped significantly in recent years, literature nevertheless has arguably managed to sustain its position as what sociologists like to call 'legitimate culture,' despite pressure from the many forms of entertainment, popular culture, and social media. Even those who read books only occasionally still acknowledge reading as an important activity, and some even have a bad conscience about not reading enough. Another indication of literature's deep-rooted value in our culture is that people frequently explain or even make excuses about why they have not been able to read more. Absence from Facebook, for example, does not prompt commensurate feelings and responses. The picture that Sarah Worth paints of the contemporary state of reading in the opening pages of her timely and very welcome book on the values of reading, In Defense of Reading, is a bit gloomier. She too points to research showing that people spend less time on reading literature. Worth also notes how in schools, at least in the United States, literature classes are threatened with being replaced by what are deemed more useful subjects or by other sorts of reading that are considered more instructive for the future life of a student. In Worth's view, another significant threat to reading literature has appeared on the horizon: social media. While she does not want to demonize the different variants of digital culture totally, she is concerned that people's attention will, to an increasing degree, be drawn to Facebook and Snapchat rather than literature. This worries her particularly because she believes social media calls for a very shallow kind of engagement compared to the efforts required in reading a complex novel. Worth's concern centers on reading narrative literature because she believes it has some significant cognitive benefits. In this respect, she continues a line of thinking followed by such figures as Martha Nussbaum, Lionel Trilling, and others, who have emphasized the deep significance that literature can have on our thinking around moral problems and situations. Worth, however, brings new nuances and aspects to this tradition of thinking. Though the notions of empathy and moral imagination figure importantly in her account, Worth believes that the value of reading extends beyond the realm of ethics, improving our cognitive organizational capacity and our ability to make sense of our life experiences in a more general sense. Worth's extensive look at the empirical research, from psychology to neuroscience, exploring how we process narratives, also brings new insights into philosophical discussions on the value of literature. For example, contrary to Gregory Currie, who has denied that there is any conclusive empirical evidence of the moral and cognitive benefits of reading, Worth believes that plenty of reliable research is, in fact, available. Despite citing numerous studies indicating the value reading can have, she ultimately insists that reading literature also possesses aspects of value that cannot be measured or quantified. One of the many merits of Worth's book is that, by engaging with such phenomena as digital, cultural and social media, it provides an updated setting for considering philosophically the value of literature. In the philosophy of literature, the question of the cognitive value of literature has been approached primarily in terms of the question of truth in fiction, that is, how a fictive literary work can say something epistemically significant about our real world. Worth thinks this semantic question provides a very narrow framework for considering the value of reading. She evaluates certain views put forward previously in the philosophy of literature as reductionist, arguing that, rather than focusing on the semantics of the literary work, philosophers should instead focus on the act of reading itself and in the interaction between text and reader that novels incite.

Contemporary Aesthetics, 2017

Conversation is one of the most mundane events of human life, yet the conversations we have can v... more Conversation is one of the most mundane events of human life, yet the conversations we have can vary a lot. Some proceed only with great effort, while others engage us thoroughly. Drawing on Dewey's aesthetics, this paper argues that the movement and rhythm of conversations can make them into genuine candidates for an aesthetic status. The key term of the paper is interaction. For Dewey, all experience – aesthetic experience included – is constituted by an interaction between humans and their environment. In his later philosophy of language, which is critical of conventionalist explanations of language, Davidson, in turn, offers a very rich account of the interactions conversations can involve. He cites the novels of James Joyce as an extreme example of just how intricate the forms of linguistic interaction can become. Though the notion of aesthetic experience does not figure in Davidson's account, his analysis of the conditions for successful communication can nevertheless be seen to shed light on those features of conversations that explain Dewey's interest in their aesthetic dimension.

British Journal of Aesthetics, 2017

Peter Kivy has argued that scholars of the music of Dimitri Shostakovich are misguided when they ... more Peter Kivy has argued that scholars of the music of Dimitri Shostakovich are misguided when they make interpretations that attribute complex extra-musical content to works of his that bear no indications of such content, such as a title or an explicitly announced programme. Upon Kivy’s account, such works should rather be approached in terms of absolute music. In this paper, I show some decisive weaknesses in this critique. Drawing on the relevant philosophical literature, I examine Shostakovich’s use of musical quotations—an essential feature of his compositions that Kivy ignores—and the significant role these play in constructing the extra-musical content of his works. Relying, in part, on recent research on authorial intentions, I also argue that the criteria Kivy presents for the reclassification of, seeming cases of, absolute music as programme music is too strict. Such reclassifications need not be accompanied by an explanation as to why the composer has not provided any direct public indication of the content of the work, as Kivy insists.

In this essay I discuss the relationship between naturalism and culture by drawing on the aesthet... more In this essay I discuss the relationship between naturalism and culture by drawing on the aesthetic notions of two leading pragmatists, John Dewey and Richard Rorty. Rorty’s view of the cultural significance of metaphor, which is based on Donald Davidson’s theory of metaphor, centers on the distinction between a naturalistic and an idealistic view of the cognitive value of metaphor. I then discuss the development from idealism to naturalism in Dewey’s view of the imagination and the parallels that may be drawn between Dewey’s and Rorty’s views, particularly regarding the latter’s critique of idealism and its failure to provide a credible philosophical understanding of culture. In the final section I outline a naturalistic view of the emergence of culture based on Dewey’s notions of rhythm and rite as presented in his classic work Art as Experience.

The Journal of Aesthetics and Art Criticism

The aesthetic and political sides of public art have recently been examined from different theore... more The aesthetic and political sides of public art have recently been examined from different theoretical vantage points. Pragmatist accounts, however, have been largely absent from the discussion. This article develops a theory of public art on some central ideas of John Dewey's aesthetics and social philosophy. From a pragmatist perspective, the best cases of public art turn out to have high social significance, for they are means of promoting the sense of community, which Dewey saw as foundational for well-functioning democracies. The Deweyan account of public art developed in this article is set against theories that explain its social value by public artworks’ ability to disrupt people's everyday routines and beliefs, as well as by the political alertness they often raise. Diana Boros's recent treatment of what she calls “visionary public art” serves as the main specimen of this approach. The Deweyan understanding of public art is illuminated and defended with the help of a reading of John Adams's On the Transmigration of Souls—a piece composed in memory of the victims of 9/11—that highlights its capacity to generate such communal experiences that have a fundamental role in Dewey's theory of democracy.

Julkinen taide ja Deweyn kokemuksellinen demokratiakäsitys. John Adamsin On the Transmigration of Souls

his article develops a theory of public art on some central ideas of John Dewey’s aesthetics and ... more his article develops a theory of public art on some central ideas of John Dewey’s aesthetics and social philosophy. It is argued that public artworks are important sources of the kind of sense of community that Dewey sees as foundational for healthy democratic societies. The Deweyan account of public art developed in the paper will be contrasted to theories, which ground the value of public artworks on a more disruptive aesthetics and which see them as powerful means of shaking people’s everyday lives. Diana Boros’s recent treatment of what she calls ”visionary public art” will be the main specimen of this sort of approach in the paper. The Deweyan understanding of public art will be illuminated and defended with help of a reading of John Adams’s On the Transmigration Souls, a piece Adams composed in emory of the victims of 9/11.

The Aesthetic Pulse of the Everyday: Defending Dewey

In the relatively fragmented field of everyday aesthetics, some issues have gradually become the ... more In the relatively fragmented field of everyday aesthetics, some issues have gradually become the subject of increasingly heated debate. One of the primary disputes concerns aesthetic experience and how that concept should be understood. This article defends the view that the conception of aesthetic experience developed by John Dewey offers a much more promising foundation for a theory on the aesthetics of everyday life than some scholars have believed.

Dewey and Everyday Aesthetics - A New Look

Contemporary Aesthetics, May 5, 2014

John Dewey is frequently mentioned as an important forerunner of everyday aesthetics. In this ar... more John Dewey is frequently mentioned as an important forerunner of everyday aesthetics. In this article, I attempt to provide an updated view of Dewey’s place within everyday aesthetics by drawing attention to aspects in Dewey’s own work and in contemporary interpretations of his philosophy that have not been thoroughly discussed in the context of everyday aesthetics. In the first part, I offer a reading of Dewey’s notion of aesthetic experience that unties its content through noting the important position Dewey ascribes to imagination in aesthetic experience in the later parts of Art as Experience. The second pillar of the pragmatist theory of everyday aesthetics developed in this paper is formed by recent Deweyan-inspired views in pragmatist ethics on the vital role of imagination in moral life. I will place the view of everyday aesthetics emerging from these pragmatist sources within current developments of everyday aesthetics and defend it over other positions on offer.

Estetika: The European Journal of Aesthetics, 2024

ESPES - The Slovak Journal of Aesthetics, 2023

Contemporary Aesthetics, 2022

Social and Technological Aspects of Art: Challenges of the ‘New Normal’, 2022

Stanford Encyclopedia of Philosophy, 2021

niin & näin, 2020

Estetika - The Central European Journal of Aesthetics, 2019

International Journal of Philosophical Studies, 2019

Paths from the Philosophy of Art to Everyday Aesthetics, 2019

Contemporary Aesthetics, 2018

Journal of Aesthetics and Phenomenology, 2018

Contemporary Aesthetics, 2017

British Journal of Aesthetics, 2017

The Journal of Aesthetics and Art Criticism

Julkinen taide ja Deweyn kokemuksellinen demokratiakäsitys. John Adamsin On the Transmigration of Souls

The Aesthetic Pulse of the Everyday: Defending Dewey

Dewey and Everyday Aesthetics - A New Look

Contemporary Aesthetics, May 5, 2014

Nykyestetiikassa taiteen ja tiedon välistä suhdetta on käsitelty ennen kaikkea kaunokirjallisuude... more Nykyestetiikassa taiteen ja tiedon välistä suhdetta on käsitelty ennen kaikkea kaunokirjallisuuden kontekstissa. Kirjallisuus on muun muassa nähty erityisen kokemuksellisen tiedon lähteenä. Kaunokirjallisuus voi antaa tietoa siitä, miltä tuntuu olla jossakin tilanteessa, esimerkiksi tietynlaisessa elämäntilanteessa tai historiallisten tapahtumien keskellä. Kirjallisten teosten on koettu antavan kokemuksellista tietoa nimenomaan tilanteista, joita ihmiset eivät omassa elämässään muuten kävisi läpi, minkä on entisestään katsottu lisäävän niiden tiedollista merkitystä. Tältä pohjalta estetiikassa on korostettu kirjallisuuden kykyä parantaa ihmisten empatiakykyä; nyt myös empiirislähtöisempi kirjallisuuden tutkimus on päätynyt samanlaisiin päätelmiin kirjallisuuden arvosta.

Esitelmäni puolustaa kaunokirjallisuuden asemaa tärkeänä kokemuksellinen tiedon lähteenä. Filosofisen argumentaation ohella valaisen kirjallisten teosten tätä ulottuvuutta analysoimalla Maria Vargas Llosan romaania Vuohen juhla, joka käsittelee Dominikaanista tasavaltaa 1930–1961 yksinvaltaisesti hallinnutta Rafael Trujilloa. Romaanissa päähenkilön muistelot diktaattorin ajasta yhdistyvät kuvauksiin Trujillon valtakauden viimeisistä vaiheista. Analyysini osoittaa, että historiallisten tosiasiaväittämien sijaan Vuohen juhlan tiedollinen arvo on nimenomaan siinä tuntumassa, jonka se antaa lukijalle elämästä diktaattorin hallitsemassa valtiossa sekä epätoivoisesti mahdistaan kiinnipitävän luhistuvan hallitsijan mielenmaisemasta.

Social and Technological Aspects of Art; Challenges of the 'New Normal', 2022

The essays collected in this collection analyze the immediate ramifications of the lockdown and s... more The essays collected in this collection analyze the immediate ramifications of the lockdown and social isolation on different forms of our artistic practices. Underlying this concern are developments within three research domains currently dominating aesthetic discussions: (i) the theoretical exploration of human aesthetic agency, with particular emphasis on its most radical expression, the creation of art; (ii) the paradigm of everyday aesthetics, which focuses on extending our aesthetic and creative endeavors into our everyday activities such as cooking, clothing and traveling; (iii) the diminishing divide of art and technology, brought about by the recognition of the aesthetic appeal, i.e. the functional beauty, of certain technological products. With respect to all three of these domains, the impact of the corona crisis and the social, political, educational, etc. means implemented to fight it – primarily the world-wide lockdown and severe restrictions of movement – was immense. Against such circumstances, the contributors wanted to explore how our artistic practices responded to these harsh new conditions of living, conditions which drastically modified ways in which art could be created, experienced and appreciated.
Contributors: Karen Simecek, Monika Favara-Kurkowski, David Collins, Matilde Carrasco Barranco, Adam Andrzejewski, Francisca Pérez Carreño, Mateusz Salwa, Eva Frapiccini, Elisa Caldarola, Marta Maliszewska, Connell Vaughan, Kalle Puolakka
Editors: Iris Vidmar Jovanović, Valentina Marianna Stupnik

John Deweyn estetiikka: Kokemus, luonto ja kulttuuri

Gaudeamus, 2021

Sisällysluettelo ks. alla Minkälainen kokemus on esteettinen kokemus? Pragmaattista filosofiaa ... more Sisällysluettelo ks. alla

Minkälainen kokemus on esteettinen kokemus? Pragmaattista filosofiaa edustavan John Deweyn (1859-1952) mukaan ei enempää eikä vähempää kuin kokemusten kokemus, jossa mielikuvitus, tunteet ja havaitseminen yhdistyvät ainutlaatuiseksi kokonaisuudeksi.

John Deweyn estetiikka -teoksessa luodaan monipuolinen katsaus Deweyn käsityksiin estetiikasta ja asemoidaan ne osaksi hänen kokemusfilosofiaansa. Estetiikassaan Dewey purkaa raja-aitoja taiteen ja muun inhimillisen todellisuuden välillä ja pyrkii yhdistämään ihmiselämän naturalistiset ja kulttuuriset ulottuvuudet. Esteettisen kokemuksen siemenet ovat luonnossa, siinä rytmisessä vuorovaikutuksessa, joka kuvastaa kaikkien eliöiden suhdetta ympäristöönsä. Esteettinen kokemus onkin Deweylle luonnon prosessien huipentuma.

Teos johdattelee lukijan samalla estetiikan ja taideteorian ajankohtaisten keskustelujen äärelle. Kirjan keskeisiin teemoihin kuuluvat kirjallisuuden tiedollinen merkitys, arjen esteettisyys, julkisen taiteen yhteiskunnalliset ulottuvuudet sekä nykymusiikin estetiikka.

Sisällysluettelo

I Deweyn naturalismi, esteettinen kokemus ja kulttuurin kehkeytyminen
II Kyllästettyjen hetkien estetiikkaa
III Kasvu ja kokemuksellinen tieto kirjallisuudessa
IV Esteettinen arki
V Julkinen taide, yhteisöllisyys ja Deweyn demokratia
VI John Adams: Musiikillinen deweyläinen

This collection of essays looks at the issue of human well-being from the point of view of enviro... more This collection of essays looks at the issue of human well-being from the point of view of environmental aesthetics. Questions addressed include: What role do aesthetic values have in advancing well-being? Are there environments that are particularly supportive of well-being? What is the place of aesthetic factors in environmental and city planning? The authors of the first part of the book illuminate the relationship between aesthetics and well-being by discussing such notions and ideas as aesthetic well-being, interactive environmental planning, aesthetic quality in urban planning, aesthetic footprint, and ecological aesthetics. The authors of this part also engage with many topical questions in environmental and everyday aesthetics. For example, Yuriko Saito’s idea of green aesthetics as well as Allen Carlson’s science-based model of the aesthetic appreciation of nature are critically examined.

Relativism and Intentionalism in Interpretation: Davidson, Hermeneutics, and Pragmatism

Lexington Books, 2011