简介

As long as I can recall, I have been curious about the arts and their place in human experience. Aesthetics, which is my main academic interest, allows me to combine this interest in the arts with an equally compelling interest in philosophy. Among the philosophers of special interest to me are Plato, Hegel, and Nelson Goodman whose friendship I enjoyed for many years after a chance meeting at a conference in Ghent Belgium. Also a guiding force in my intellectual development was my friendship with Rudolf Arnheim, whose publications on the psychology of art form an important contribution to aesthetics in the twentieth century. My studies at Boston University, where I was awarded the Ph. D. degree in philosophy under direction of Marx Wartofsky, provided a fortunate crossing of the history of philosophy, analytic philosophy, and aesthetics. Prior to this as an undergraduate, I had developed an appreciation for the work of the pragmatists, especially John Dewey and William James. From the beginning, my work has focused on the application of aesthetics to understanding of all aspects of life including both personal development and institutional structures. Aesthetics pervades not only the arts, but also other aspects of culture including environment, politics, economics, sports, and religion. This theme was reflected in my Presidential Lecture at the 19th International Congress of Aesthetics in 2013 and in various projects throughout my career. My interest in bringing arts to audience in the social service community led to the creation of Art Reach Milwaukee, an agency to bring arts into social service agencies and provide artists with employment. Later on (1984-2007) it was possible to orchestrate (as founding director) the creation of the Haggerty Museum on the Marquette University Campus to provide a laboratory for learning that would allow students to integrate the arts into their academic studies and to offer the community a venue for free access to visual arts exhibitions from across the world. Curating and organizing modern and contemporary arts events has greatly extended my knowledge of the visual and performing arts, especially dance and performance art.