이 논문은 프래그머티즘 미학의 완성자인 존 듀이의 미학이 1960년대 이후 미국에서 전개된 미적 교육론의 철학적 배경이 된다는 점을 밝힌다. 전체론적 프래그머티즘의 관점에서 정서와 인지, 예술과 과학의 이분법을 부정하는 듀이의 미학은 굿맨에 앞서 예술인지론의 선구자로서 자리매김한다. 미적 경험의 생생함을 유지하면서도 미적 문해의 개념을 주장하는 현대 미적 교육론의 주장들은 전통적인 미적 경험의 개념 속에서는 대단히 모순적인 이론으로 느껴질 수도 있다. 하지만 듀이의 미학은 미적 경험의 생생함 속에서 미적 이해를 증진시킬 수 있는 교육적 가능성을 열어 놓았다. 이러한 점에서 듀이의 미학에는 미적 경험과 미적 문해가 양립 가능한 미적 교육의 문제를 제기하며, 동일한 맥락에서 생생한 미적 경험을 유지 하면서도 정서의 인지기능을 통한 이해의 증진을 주장하는 넬슨 굿맨의 인지주의미학을 선도했다는 점을 밝힌다.This paper starts with the premise that John Dewey’s pragmatist aesthetics has been the theoretical basis of the middle-later 20th american aesthetic education theorists. Their foremost goals should be to look forward to a society in which all individuals are visually literate and aesthetically sensitive to their environment at least as much as is possible considering any individual’s potentialities.
Dewey’s main concern throughout his career was with the problems of man and the solution of these problems. In this paper I shall attempt to show how Dewey faced the problem of aesthetic education and apply the findings specifically to the problem of teaching which is commonly called “appreciation” of fine arts. Dewey views the fine arts as essential aspects of education and as “the chief agencies of an intensified, enhanced appreciation.” From this view, we can find that Dewey notes the instrumentality of the fine arts. Dewey assumes that the method of intelligent perception(discrimination and unification as the form of perception) and the act of aesthetic appreciation are not opposed. Dewey’s idea of aesthetic criticism suggests the unification of criticism as a judgement and aesthetic appreciation of arts. The road to appreciation of any art is not an easy one and the teacher’s role is important. From Dewey, aesthetic criticism is the “reeducation of perception” and a critic is a teacher. To learn to see anything well is a difficult undertaking, it requires the activity of the whole personality. Learning to perceive demands the interaction of the whole personality with things about it. Intelligence is only manifested in doing as interaction. Imagination is closely allied with interest and emotion in that all contribute to the integrity of an experience, to that is characteristic of all experience and that is to be found most completely in an aesthetic experience.