Unlike many before him, Dewey does not view the human perception as an imperfect "intellectual telescope," meaning that he doesn't think the viewing of aesthetic art without intellectual value is the right question to ask to begin with. He is much more clear about the experience of the viewer, as opposed to the content he or she is actually viewing. He describes an experience as, "when the material experienced runs its course in fulfillment...Such an experience is a whole and carries with it its own individualizing quality and self-sufficiency. It is an experience" (Dewey, 305).
It is clear that Dewey does not address the value of purely aesthetic art, because he does not view the human eye as a filter for intellectualism. This is not the angle, nor the question, that Dewey addresses when examining art. "Art as Experience," is, in fact, the art that we experience in every day life, and in defining the "real experiences," from the incomplete ones, Dewey sheds light on my question in his own unique way.
" 'real experiences'; those things of which we say in recalling them, 'that was an experience.' It may have been something of tremendous importance...Or it may have been something that in comparison was slight- and which perhaps because of its very slightness illustrates all the better what is is to be an experience" (Dewey, 305).
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