Curtis L. Carter

What are Eric Mullis’s contributions to a pragmatist philosophy of dance? First, the work brings attention to aspects of dance in regional and religious contexts and to a selection of religious dance practices not typically addressed in the literature of dance philosophy, thus adding to the current scope of dance studies. This book’s main strength with respect to pragmatist philosophies is its efforts to apply existing theories of pragmatism to aspects of dance in a particular regional setting. This task is accomplished with three aspects of the research: ecological study of Pentecostal dance, pragmatism in a selection of its manifestations with connections to philosophies of dance, and performance. In the final chapter, the scope is broadened with summary references to alternative theories of dance philosophy and their interdisciplinary relations to dance studies using pragmatist philosophies. The remainder of this essay examines selection of past and current studies that inform the state of dance philosophy with the aim of gathering a broader perspective on the state of dance philosophy. While there is no established long-term tradition of dance philosophy, a generation of twentieth-century scholars—Cohen, Arnheim, Sparshott, Goodman, Van Camp, Banes, Carroll, McFee, Foster, and Fraleigh, among others—has advanced recent philosophical discussion of dance. Joining these are contemporary writers on philosophy of dance, such as Anna Pakes.

Nelson Goodman (1906-2007) approached the arts and other kinds of knowledge as forms of symbolism. His principal aim in philosophy was to advance understanding and remove confusions by verbal analysis and logical constructions. Goodman's philosophical theories encompass nominalism, constructivism and a version of radical relativism. In his Languages of Art, Goodman sets forth distinctions among the various art according to differences in the forms of symbols employed. He contributed as well to arts education and to philosophy of the museum. His performance work, "Hockey Seen: A Nightmare in Three Periods and Sudden Death embodies his aesthetic theories.

As a new trend in aesthetics appearing concurrently in the West and the East in the last ten years, the aesthetics of everyday life points to a growing diversification among existing methodologies for pursuing aesthetics, alongside the shift from art-based aesthetics. The cultural diversity manifest in global aesthetics offers common ground for the collaborative efforts of aesthetics in both the West and the East. Given the rapidly growing interest and its potential for attracting new audiences extending beyond the more narrowly focused traditions of twentieth-century analytic and environmental aesthetics, it stands to command its own share of attention in the future of aesthetic studies. The aesthetics of everyday life has become a stream of thought with a global ambition. This interest has led to numerous systematic and in-depth works on this topic, some of which were conducted by the authors represented in this volume. A salient feature of this book is that it not only represents the recent developments of the aesthetics of everyday life in the West, but also highlights the interaction between scholars in the West and the East on this topic. Thus, the project is a contribution toward mutual progress in the collaboration between Western and Eastern aesthetics. What distinguishes this book from other anthologies and monographs on this topic is that it reconstructs the aesthetics of everyday life through cultural dialogue between the West and the East, with a view to building a new form of aesthetics of everyday life, as seen from a global perspective. At present, the aesthetics of everyday life as a newly emergent approach to aesthetics may encounter skepticism among aestheticians accustomed to the rigors of analytic philosophers who prefer to discuss aesthetics at the level of abstract concepts and argument, and who tolerate the particulars of experience mainly as illustrations. But, there is no reason to abandon the pursuit of the aesthetics of everyday life in the face of such objections. On the contrary, there are many benefits to gain in bringing aesthetics to bear on a wider sphere of human life, made possible through efforts to show the relevance of aesthetics to a broader range of human actions.