Corporeal cognition

pragmatist aesthetics in William James

Thalia Trigoni

pp. 55-69

in: Aesthetics and the embodied mind, Berlin, Springer, 2015

Abstract

This chapter seeks to establish that William James articulates an ontological and aesthetic theory wherein the body is conceived of as capable of performing complicated forms of cognition even as it does not possess the conceptual apparatus of the discursive, conscious mind. In order to corroborate this thesis, I will be looking into various contexts, including James' notion of the selective nature of sensory perception that shapes experience, his distinction between percept and concept, and his theory of emotion. Another major context that provides valuable insight into James' aesthetics is the field of arts. These case studies help demonstrate how James' view of the body as an intelligent cognitive agent appears to have a much more powerful sway over the mind than we have hitherto been able to detect.

Cited authors

James William