Abstract

FUENTE CARRILLO, Marta de la. Care as an aesthetic experience according to John Dewey. Index Enferm [online]. 2021, vol.30, n.1-2, pp.80-84.  Epub Apr 25, 2022. ISSN 1699-5988.

"Care" and "experience" are two common terms in our everyday life. Nonetheless, if we try to define them, it turns out to be extremely tricky. This paper intends to connect both following the concept of "experience" established by John Dewey, who developed the idea of an "aesthetic experience" as a way of overcoming quotidian experience in the context of modernity. On the other hand, in order to get a definition of "care", it will be necessary to appeal to great nursing researchers as Marie-Françoise Collière, Jean Watson, or Barbara Carper, between others, who agree on the conception of care as a transforming process while they underline its inherent aesthetic dimension: the art of care. The aim of this paper is to emphasize the importance of aesthetics as an essential part of care as "an" experience because, according to Dewey's theory, that fact would bring up the possibility to increase satisfaction in both participants in the caring process. Finally, it will be raised an hypothesis that suggests the possibility of the continuity in the care process due to the experience feeling.

Keywords : Aesthetics of care; Care; Nursing philosophy; Nursing; Aesthetic experience.