The “Sheer Dynamic Form” of Value: A Phenomenological-Emotionalist Axiology in Light of Dance
Maryam Vahedi
Kultura i Wartości September 7, 2026 DOI: 10.17951/kw.2026.41.9-30 (opens in new tab)
Study at a glance
AI-extracted from the abstract| Characteristics | Theoretical or philosophical paper Qualitative Peer reviewed |
|---|---|
| Key points | Argues that rationalist axiology mistakenly reduces values to measurable behaviours, and proposes instead, via Husserl and Sheets-Johnstone's phenomenology of dance, that values are "sheer dynamic forms" intuited pre-reflectively through emotion and movement. On this view, ethical agency is a process of kinetic-emotional attunement, with the body as the primary site of axiological discovery. |
Abstract
Confronting the experiential dimension of value, this paper critiques rationalist models for reducing axiology to discrete, measurable actions. Echoing Edmund Husserl’s critique of the “mathematization” of nature, it posits that rationalist axiology substitutes measurable behaviours for the lived quality of value itself. Using Maxine Sheets-Johnstone’s phenomenology of dance, the analysis demonstrates how dance abstracts feeling from everyday content to reveal its “sheer dynamic form,” or “import.” The argument contends that values function analogously as invariant qualitative forms intuited pre-reflectively. They are “sheer dynamic forms” intuited emotionally and kinetically, distinct from the specific actions in which they appear. This trajectory reframes value as a qualitative presence one becomes one with, suggesting that ethical agency is a process of kinetic-emotional attunement—a re-orientation that reclaims the body as the primary site of axiological discovery.