Re: [xmca] New Poll Shortly

[Larry Purss <lpscholar2@gmail.com>]

Mike,
 I find this topic very fertile ground which may need to be *reworked*.
Robert mentioned Dewey was criticized for not having an understanding of
the *tragic soul*   Andy mentioned that an experienced must be *bounded*.
I would like to add further reflections from Tom Leddy's article you
attached on Dewey's Aesthetics. I am referring to page 34 & 35 where Dewey
is exploring the common substance of the Arts. This section is a response
to the *tragic soul* and *bounded* experience.

The creative process BEGINS with a "total seizure", a "mood", which
determines the development of art into parts.  THIS *element* Dewey refers
to as a *penetrating quality* which is immediately experienced in all parts
of the work. It is so pervasive we take it for granted. Without this
penetrating quality the parts would only be mechanically related.  The
organic whole IS the parts PERMEATED by this penetrating quality. It may be
called the SPIRIT of the work. It is also the work's *reality* in that it
makes us experience the work AS *real*  This penetrating quality is the
BACKGOUND that qualifies everything in the foreground.

What are the *boundaries* of this background which Dewey calls *the
setting*?  Dewey's answer is thought provoking. He assumes that although
experiences have bounded edges like those of their objects, the whole of
*an* experience, and especially its qualitative penetrating *spirit* within
the object, EXTENDS INDEFINITELY. This penetrating quality of the
experience is THAT which is not focused within the experience.  The margins
of our experience shade into that indefinate expanse.  This experiential
penetrating backgound is only made CONSCIOUS within the specific objects
that form the focus.  Behind every explicit experience there is something
implicit that we call *vague* but this vagueness was not vague in the
ORIGINAL experience for this penetrating quality is a FUNCTION of the whole
*situation*  An experience *is mystical*, Dewey believes, to the extent
this feeling of a penetrating background is INTENSE. This penetrating
quality is particularly intense in certain works of art, for example IN
TRAGEDY.  A work of art must include something not understood.

I am not sure if Vygotsky shares a *family resemblance* with this
expansive, penetrating sense of *substance* which makes reality FEEL
*real*. The question of the boundedness of *an* experience, from Dewey's
understanding certainly was reflecting on the *tragic soul* within
*settings*.

Larry

On Wed, Feb 27, 2013 at 9:17 AM, mike cole <lchcmike@gmail.com> wrote:

> It all moves so quickly it is hard to take it all in, Larry, let alone
> find time to comment.I am still
> back on rhythmicity which I am thinking of from the perspective of someone
> who thinks of
> communication as patterns of coordination over time.
>
> In this regard, it seems to me that many of Durkheim's ideas in Elementary
> Forms of Religious
> Experience are highly relevant. Durkheim's pluses and minuses are, I know,
> a matter of important
> debate in themselves, but they come down to me through my engagement with
> cross cultural
> research through Levy-Bruhl and Piaget.
>
> And now, toss in the Bakhtin (the liar or the seer) and it should be
> enough to think about when we are being absent minded.
>
> mike
>
>
> On Wed, Feb 27, 2013 at 8:43 AM, Larry Purss <lpscholar2@gmail.com> wrote:
>
>> Mike,
>>
>> This months themed issue linking felt experience with Bahktin's notion of
>> genre's and cultural-historical-activity theory wiil keep the current
>> dialgue with Dewey alive.
>> I'm anticipating a lively encounter.
>> Larry
>>
>> On Wed, Feb 27, 2013 at 8:20 AM, mike cole <lchcmike@gmail.com> wrote:
>>
>>> We will be re-posting the articles for discussion poll a little later
>>> this
>>> morning and
>>> restarting the balloting so that the full menu is out there for people to
>>> read
>>> AND COMMENT ON!
>>> :-)
>>> mike
>>> __________________________________________
>>> _____
>>> xmca mailing list
>>> xmca@weber.ucsd.edu
>>> http://dss.ucsd.edu/mailman/listinfo/xmca
>>>
>>
>>
>
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