Literature and Cognitivism in John Dewey’s Aesthetics

Abstract

Although John Dewey’s aesthetic theory has been widely discussed in secondary literature over the past four decades, few works have highlighted the importance the philosopher assigned to the literary arts. The hypothesis of this article claims that literature occupied a significant place in Dewey’s aesthetic theory, and that it played a central role in his cognitivist aesthetic-moral argument. To develop this hypothesis, the research is structured in four stages. The first consists of an introduction to the problem. The following section focuses on the presence of literature as a central element in Dewey’s aesthetic theory, both in his maturity and in his youth. The third section examines the role of literature in his aesthetic-cognitivist argument. Finally, in the fourth and last section, some conclusions are presented.