Aili Whalen, JD, PhD - Academia.edu (original) (raw)

Papers by Aili Whalen, JD, PhD

Promotion to the rank of Associate Professor, Department of Philosophy, College of Arts and Scien... more Promotion to the rank of Associate Professor, Department of Philosophy, College of Arts and Scienceshttps://ecommons.udayton.edu/svc\_milestone/1023/thumbnail.jp

The Philosophers’ Magazine, 2015

Transactions of the Charles S. Peirce Society: A Quarterly Journal in American Philosophy, 2021

Thus far, I have developed a demonstrative argument for a pluralist approach to performance resea... more Thus far, I have developed a demonstrative argument for a pluralist approach to performance research which generates practical and theoretical knowledge useful for the artistic process. Because the focus has been on Pragmatism, I have not directly considered other theoretical methodologies that may also be helpful to the artist. After introducing the illustrative, analytic, poetic, phenomenological, and contextualist approaches here, I assess their ability to analyze the diversity of dance as a practice and argue for an instrumentalist approach to theory application. This is implicit in previous chapters in that the subject matter of particular areas of inquiry has, in some cases, been methodologically framed, for example, with firsthand experience of performing auto-affective techniques being described, in part, in a phenomenological fashion. I develop a theory-in-process model which assesses existing methodologies in light of their ability to support choreographic and dramaturgical thinking aimed at clarifying and addressing artistic problems. This in turn leads me to the topic of performance philosophy, or the idea that performance goes beyond presenting philosophical content-for example, in the manner of existentialist plays by Jean-Paul Sartre or Albert Camus-by theatrically advancing philosophical inquiry. I outline a Pragmatist approach to performance philosophy that draws on Dewey's notion of the means-ends continuum and the idea of dramaturgical care to further clarify the inquiry advanced by Later Rain, and I develop an argument concerning pragmatic meliorism and the

The Routledge Companion to Performance Philosophy, 2020

In this chapter, we propose that one of the many possible ways that dance might embody philosophi... more In this chapter, we propose that one of the many possible ways that dance might embody philosophic thought and discourse is via embodying ethical practice. Each author contributes a different perspective on the relationship between dance and ethical activity. We invite the reader to go through this account in two ways: as separate ideas and as interrelated thoughts. Katan-Schmid views ‘dance’ as a metaphor for ‘embodied ethics’. She analyses dance as an embodied activity of decision-making which regulates the tension between coexisting physical dynamics. Following from the idea of ‘dancing’, she asks us to think of ‘embodied ethics’ in performative terms–as a contemplative activity. In her section, Bresnahan shows how dance practice provides examples of applied ethics within traditional Western philosophical categories of both virtue ethics and consequentialist ethics. Houston argues that dance can encompass an ethics of care. She demonstrates how dance with an ethic of care involves attentiveness, putting the person before the form, and for the dance artists to give up a degree of control and autonomy over the work made.

East Asian Journal of Philosophy

This article analyzes Joseph Margolis’ criticism of Morris Weitz’ definition of art with an eye t... more This article analyzes Joseph Margolis’ criticism of Morris Weitz’ definition of art with an eye to sorting out where, precisely, their differences lie. In particular, it focuses on their differing ideas of what an “open” and “closed” definition of art amounts to and what sort of entity art is. It concludes with the suggestion that differences in metaphysical worldview, rather than differences in how they view what kinds of entities should count as art, account for the discrepancy in their views.

Pragmatist Philosophy and Dance, 2019

This chapter proposes a theory of dance rhythm as distinct from rhythm in dance. First, it distin... more This chapter proposes a theory of dance rhythm as distinct from rhythm in dance. First, it distinguishes natural and intentional rhythm, constructed from combining theories by Dewey and Margolis. It then defends this account by exploring musical and non-musical connections between rhythm and dance. It argues that dance rhythm can arise in conjunction with music, or that it can – though need not – follow music, or that it can set the musical rhythm, or be completely independent of music, though natural or internal bodily rhythms can underpin both. Finally, it asserts the existence of dance that might be naturally rhythmic, but not in a way essential to dance qua dance.https://ecommons.udayton.edu/books/1045/thumbnail.jp

The Philosophy of Rhythm, 2019

Chapter 5 proposes a theory of dance rhythm as distinct from rhythm in dance. First, it distingui... more Chapter 5 proposes a theory of dance rhythm as distinct from rhythm in dance. First, it distinguishes natural and intentional rhythm, constructed from combining theories by John Dewey and Joseph Margolis. It then defends this account by exploring musical and non-musical connections between rhythm and dance. It argues that dance rhythm can arise in conjunction with music, or that it can—though need not—follow music, or that it can set the musical rhythm, or be completely independent of music, though natural or internal bodily rhythms can underpin both. Finally, it asserts the existence of dance that might be naturally rhythmic, but not in a way essential to dance qua dance.

Margolis’s methodology is best located in the pragmatic tradition, broadly construed. His pragmat... more Margolis’s methodology is best located in the pragmatic tradition, broadly construed. His pragmatism lies in his commitment to understanding the world as part of collective and consensual human practice and situated interaction; his embracing of the changing nature of history and science; and his approach to human knowledge as constructed. In particular this pragmatic bent is evidenced by his affinity for Charles Sanders Peirce’s semeiotics, by which thought shows us the real world through the interpretation of signs and symbols, the existence of mind legitimated as “objective” and “real.” Margolis also uses Peirce’s theory of predicative generals (as constructed but existent place-holders that focus discourse) in place of universals (as metaphysically fixed and existent types) as a way to discuss the discursive and indeterminate natures of what he considers to be inherently interpretable and significant properties of cultural artifacts (to be described more fully as Intentional pro...

Morris Weitz’s initial theory of art was provided in his book Philosophy of the Arts (1950). Here... more Morris Weitz’s initial theory of art was provided in his book Philosophy of the Arts (1950). Here Weitz calls his theory of art “empirical” and “organic,” and he defined “art” as “an organic complex or integration of expressive elements embodied in a sensuous medium. By “empirical” he means that his theory answers to the evidence provided by actual works of art. “Organic,” for Weitz, means that each element is to be considered in relation to the others in a living and not merely mechanical way. Weitz also has a broad understanding of “expressive,” which refers to an artistic property that functions as a semiotic sign, either of a specific emotional feeling, an emotional quality, or another sign of an emotional feature. These expressive signs are at once presentational and representational in his view, by which he means that they both are something and are about something (at the very least they are about emotion or emotional qualities). In this way his early theory of the art object...

The Routledge Handbook of Philosophy of Temporal Experience, 2017

Dance and the Quality of Life, 2019

notes in his book, The Abuse of Beauty: Aesthetics and the Concept of Art (2003), that one of the... more notes in his book, The Abuse of Beauty: Aesthetics and the Concept of Art (2003), that one of the great advances in the philosophy of art has been to understand that not all good art is beautiful. He cites Henri Matisse's painting Blue Nude (1907) as a case in point (p. 36). He also says, however, that: … beauty is the only one of the aesthetic qualities that is also a value, like truth and goodness. It is not simply among the values we live by, but one of the values that defines what a fully human life means. (p. 15) In On Beauty and Being Just, Elaine Scarry (1999) also points to Matisse's paintings as examples that expand the capacity of our minds to change and accommodate new forms of beauty (pp. 46-47). Scarry also credits Matisse for showing us how beautiful persons or things lead the perceiver "to a more capacious regard for the world" (p. 48). Like Danto and Scarry, rather than claiming that beauty is an outmoded idea, we hold to the need for this important concept. This chapter is an attempt to reconsider the idea of beauty in a way that broadens it to include the possibility that there can be beauty in disability when the perceiver learns to expand their regard for the world through dance-based and other social interactions with disabled persons. This broadening is not a watering-down of the idea of beauty, but rather an enriching of it in a way that is true to what is happening in both dance and in non-dance life. In reconsidering beauty, we will first look to the historical origins of the dominant contemporary understanding of beauty. From there we will show how historical accounts of beauty can be traced through

The Bloomsbury Handbook of Dance and Philosophy, 2021

Strong gravitational lensing is a powerful tool for probing the matter distribution in the cores ... more Strong gravitational lensing is a powerful tool for probing the matter distribution in the cores of massive dark matter haloes. Recent and ongoing analyses of galaxy cluster surveys (MACS, CFHTLS, SDSS, SGAS, CLASH, LoCuSS) have adressed the question of the nature of the dark matter distribution in clusters. N-body simulations of cold dark-matter haloes consistently find that haloes should be characterized by a concentration-mass relation that decreases monotonically with halo mass, and populated by a large amount of substructures, representing the cores of accreted progenitor halos. It is important for our understanding of dark matter to test these predictions. We present MOKA, a new algorithm for simulating the gravitational lensing signal from cluster-sized haloes. It implements the most recent results from numerical simulations to create realistic cluster-scale lenses with properties independent of numerical resolution. We perform systematic studies of the strong lensing cross section as a function of halo structures. We find that the strong lensing cross sections depend most strongly on the concentration and on the inner slope of the density profile of a halo, followed in order of importance by halo triaxiality and the presence of a bright central galaxy.

The Journal of Aesthetics and Art Criticism, 2017

American Society for Aesthetics Graduate E-Journal, 2013

This dissertation is an attempt to articulate the conviction, born of ten years of intensive expe... more This dissertation is an attempt to articulate the conviction, born of ten years of intensive experience in learning and practicing to be a dance performer, that the dance performer, through collaboration with the choreographer, makes an important contribution to how we can and do understand artistic dance performance. Further, this contribution involves on-the-flythinking-while-doing in which the movement of the dancer’s body is run through by consciousness. Some of this activity of “consciousness” in movement may not be part of the deliberative mentality of which the agent is aware; it may instead be something that is part of his or her body’s natural and acquired plan for how to move in the world that is shaped by years of artistic and cultural training and practice. The result is a qualitative and visceral performance that can, although need not, be a representation of some deliberative thought or intention that a dancer can articulate beforehand. It is also the sort of thinking ...