Art against Aesthetics

Abstract Isobel Armstrong, surveying the history of aesthetic thought for a truly “democratic thinker,” settles on the John Dewey of Art as Experience (1934), “for whom the question of value is not a central issue — for whom, indeed, judgment is a massive deflection from the meaning of aesthetic experience.” The Radical Aesthetic (2000) contains a great deal of material, but the radical heart of Armstrong's polemical book consists in its engagement with Dewey. This essay examines the virtuous, value-free aesthetic that emerges from this engagement, and describe its hidden costs.