Musical Semiotics in Growth - SemioticSigns.com

94 Macie.j .ltrltfttri.ski
specil'ic organizalion of elements and relatiorrs creating a "contextual
entircty". I'rom "experience in gencral" (in the second sense mentioned
ahove). This is the consequence of constitutive properties that in the
cognitive act appear to us as "directly given" and independent of the
discourse. In this way, aesthetic expericnce resolves itself, in the
understanding proposed hy Dewey, into the variant of the dtrect
cognitive act. '['his monrent determines the first contact point between
Peirce's ancl Dcwey's conccptions of aesthetic experience.
Conclusions
Following fronr the above renrarks. we can state that the "contextual
entirety" or "situation" is experienccd. according to Dewey. as an
undeniable rvhole. We perceive here a distinct parallel to the fbrmulation
o1'Peircc. wlrere cxperience understood as a cognitive act is "part" of a
senriosis and as such through interpretation it constitutes the interpretant
(which is the result of experience regardless of what kind of experience
it is). Since thrs type of the discussed experience is identified with the
category of lrirstness. we still rcntain in the sphere of interpretants
classified as "thc flrst ones". In this connection. on the one hand we deal
with the emotional interpretant contrasted with energetic and logrcal
ones: on the other hand, rve havc the direct interpretant (next to the
dynamic and the final one) appearing in turn as a constitutive co-rnember
of thc cmotional interpretant, as a consecutive co-menrber, next to the
dynanric co-mernber of thc energetic interprctant, and as the constitutive
co-rnembcr. ncxt to thc dynarlic and final ones, of thc logical
lnterprctant.
Thc phascs of cxpericnce distinguished hy Dewey, defined as
aesthctic, practic:al. and intellectual, bring to nrind the classification ancl
articulation of the interdcpendence of categorics and interpretants. The
aesthctic phasc of experiencc corresponds to Peirce's category of
Firstncss; the practical phase indicatcs a definite action, and behavior is
equivalcnt to the category of Secondness; and the intellectual phase
corrcsponds to -fhirdness (here. the analogy is nrore than obvious).
Continuing our conrparisou, we perceive that the aesthetic dimension of
Vttlues and lheir cognition in the semiotir: theory of C.S.Peirce 9-5
Dewey's experience can he interpreted as Peirce's emotional
inlcrprctant. the practical monrent of cxpcrience as crrcrgctic
interprctant; and finally the intellectual rnoment is connectcd with the
logical interpretant. This "structural" correspondence of Dewey's
aesthetics and Peirce's theory of interpretants detennines tlre first stage
of the conrparison of both conceptions.
The second stage, discussed earlier, is dcfrned by the thesis of a
homogeneous treatrnent by both philosophers of the category of emotive,
unmediated experience, which from the aesthetic point of view is the
rnost desired monrent, generating further phases of experience that rnay
but do not have lo occur. According to Dewey, what is "direct in
cxperience" is revealed hy the fact that it is not vcrbalizable, it cannot be
determined or defined, it can only he "shown". In Peirce's systern of
interpretants, this situation corresponds to the function of a direct
interpretant.
So. the aesthctic thread of Peirce's theory of interprctants relcrs in
{'act to two prohlcrns. Firstly, the aesthetic cxpcrience irt its rnost pure
lbrnr takes place in the act of cognition that constitutes the emotional
clirect interpretant. This conclusion is backed up by: (a) the primary
function of the direct interpretant connected with (b) the category of
"feeling" (emotive moment). On the other hand, what is "aesthetic", the
first phase of experience. rrrganizes in some way the further stages of
experience, constituting thereby the energetic and logical interpretants.
It is obvious, as follows from the remarks above, tlrat each of'these types
of experience have seniotic status, although they refcr to diff'erent
organizationalevels within the universum of signs.
The a-xio-teleological situation of the semasiological interpretation is
always determined by reference to the realized aim, that is, the
"discovery" of the interpretant; yet each time it is determined by the
type o1' cxperience. Due 1o subiective relativization, the experir'ncc
imparts to the interpretation a degenerated character since in its rcsult
"there appear" sign-defining rneanings ancht'rrecl in extra-sign reality.
Concluding, onc must stress that as a result of the para aestheticoscmiotic
view clf the creator of pragnratism there appears a clear, though
maybe not very attractive. picture of the discussecl problents. We obtain
a conception witlr a distinctly enrotive inclination, accentuating