Embodying Meaning: Qualities, Feelings, Selective Attention, and Habits

Recently, there has been increasing pedagogical interest in the qualities and characteristics of movement. This article examines these qualities and characteristics in terms of John Dewey’s distinction between abstract, linguistic significant meanings and concrete, embodied imminent meanings. Imminent meanings are comprised of intuitive qualities, feelings, selective attention, and habits. We examine each of these in turn in hopes of better understanding the learning of “body techniques” while illuminating some important aspects of body pedagogics.