"Art has been the means of keeping alive the sense of purposes that outrun evidence and of meanings that transcend indurated habit."
-Dewey, Art as Experience
-Dewey, Art as Experience
suicidedoggie:
Yeowzers! That's intensely packed. I'm not sure about this but I think I can come up with two broad categories of relevance here. There are some things which stabilize and build on our habitual self. I dunno. Things like when one says of oneself "I'm the kind of person who...". So, "I'm the kind of person who never takes risks." I think we all need the limitations of habit to some varying degree or we'd not be able to function, let alone be successful in a social context. And then there are other things which seem to me to be about transcending the habitual and its limitations. Good art, in my book, does this. It connects to the energy and limitless potential of what one could be; punches a hole through the wall of the habitual self - shakes things up a bit. But there are other things which do this too. Questioning or exploring one's sexual identity, for example, or any other aspect of one's self is a risky, thrilling and potentially very scary and very liberating thing to do. It can also be very destructive. The power of limits...