tory or anthropology. It is, after all, not just statues (or paintings or poems)
that we have to do with, but the factors that cause these things to seem
important—that is, affected with import—to those who make or possess
them, and these are as various as life itself.... If there is a commonality it
lies in the fact that certain activities everywhere seem specifically designed
to demonstrate that ideas are visible, audible, and—one needs to make a
word up here—tactible, that they can be cast in forms where the senses, and
through the senses the emotions, can reflectively address them. The variety
of artistic expression stems from the variety of conceptions men have about
the way things are, and is indeed the same variety. (“Art as a Cultural
System,” 1499)In this passage, we find some of the central features of what has become
known as aesthetic experience. Aesthetic experience is central to how
certain objects “come to seem important” to us. Geertz’s emphasis on
the fact that there is a strong historical dimension to our encounter with
works of art suggests that aesthetic experience is not immediate, but
rather that it is mediated by the traditions of which we are a part. Hans-
Georg Gadamer develops the view of aesthetic experience as a histori-
cally mediated process, a type of hermeneutical (interpretative)
engagement with a given work. Indeed there is a strong tradition in aes-
thetics of using aesthetic experience as the inroad to an understanding of
art’s value for us.^25 John Dewey placed aesthetic experience at the cen-
ter of his conception of art as part of his goal to free art from its narrow
confines in museums (for our experience of a sunset or appreciation of
a view of a mountain landscape cannot be confined in the enclosed halls
of the museum).^26 Richard Shusterman further develops the move
toward an understanding of art in terms of human experience. In his arti-
cle, “The End of Aesthetic Experience,” Shusterman points to Dewey’s
desire to free art from its “object fetishism and from its confinement to
the traditional domain of fine art.”^27 There are, of course, problems with
the approach to defining art in terms of aesthetic experience, so I don’t
want to present aesthetic experience as some sort of magical pharmakon
for the problem of defining art and its value for humans. But I do stand
in strong agreement with some points that Shusterman develops, as he
emphasizes that, despite the problems with using aesthetic experience as
the inroad to our experience of art, there are even more dire conse-
quences when we flippantly reject the importance of aesthetic experi-
ence and its central role for art. As Shusterman emphasizes, aesthetic
experience, “rather than defining art or justifying critical verdicts, [is a
directional] concept, reminding us of what is worth seeking in art and
The Humanizing Function of Art 85