Abstract

This dissertation looks to integrate John Dewey's aesthetics and educational theory to an extent that Dewey himself never achieved. Using Robert Pirsig's popular Zen and the Art of Motorcycle Maintenance as a narrative context, I attempt to show the educative value of teaching students how to cultivate aesthetic experiences both within and beyond the classroom. I contend that such experiences are for Dewey paradigmatic instances of learning and growth. My approach is highly interdisciplinary throughout, drawing on art, philosophy, literature, literary criticism, and the social sciences. ;With the main body of the dissertation, I reveal that a thought-provoking and relatively coherent philosophical position can be gleaned from Pirsig's writings, and that this position, given its markedly Deweyan sentiments and vivid narrative mode of expression, can serve as a valuable illustration of and commentary on many of Dewey's ideas. In staging such an encounter, moreover, some of the potential pitfalls of pursuing an artful life come to light, pitfalls that relate rather directly to current debates surrounding the notion of "authenticity" and various private practices of self-fashioning. I maintain that becoming aware of these pitfalls as an educator can be powerfully instructive, especially when contrasted with the overt social dimension of Dewey's aesthetics of the everyday. ;The concluding section of the dissertation uses the material from the previous several chapters to develop a comprehensive vision of aesthetic education. It closes with a call for educational environments that serve to enhance students' intellectual and emotional responsiveness to the everyday; that is, environments that encourage students to affirm their limitations and half-knowledge by taking an active interest in all of the constituents of experience