Dewey holds that the capacity for aesthetic experiences of art arises out of basic mechanisms, present even in animals, that are employed throughout everyday life. We are in a continual process, Dewey notes, of falling out of sync with our environments—whenever we are hungry, cold, tired, afraid, or in pain—and regaining our sense of union and harmony. We continually detect signs of dissatisfaction or discomfort within ourselves and attempt to alleviate that discomfort. When we achieve ‘an adjustment of our whole being to the conditions of existence,’ we experience ‘a fulfillment that reaches to the depths of.
