Blues - Philosophy for Everyone - by Fritz Allhoff & Jesse R Steinberg & Abrol Fairweather (Paperback)

Book Synopsis

The philosophy of the blues

From B.B. King to Billie Holiday, Blues music not only sounds good, but has an almost universal appeal in its reflection of the trials and tribulations of everyday life. Its ability to powerfully touch on a range of social and emotional issues is philosophically inspiring, and here, a diverse range of thinkers and musicians offer illuminating essays that make important connections between the human condition and the Blues that will appeal to music lovers and philosophers alike.

From the Back Cover

From B. B. King to Billie Holiday, blues music not only sounds good but has an almost universal appeal in its reflection of the trials and tribulations of everyday life. Its ability to powerfully touch on a range of social and emotional issues is philosophically inspiring, and here a diverse range of thinkers and musicians offer illuminating essays that make important connections between the human condition and the blues.

So, if nobody loves you but your Momma, open the pages and explore:

• Blues and the human condition
• Women and the blues
• Why it can feel so good to feel so blue
• The transformation of trauma and loss in the blues
• Whether whites ripped off the blues

Blues - Philosophy for Everyone brings together intriguing insights into the connection between the blues and philosophy that will appeal to music lovers and philosophers alike.

Review Quotes

"Blues - Philosophy for Everyone provides illuminating essays from this philosophy of the blues. It brings together intriguing insights into the connection between the blues and philosophy that will appeal to music lovers and philosophers alike." (SirReadaLot.org, 1 February 2012)

"Blues? Philosophy? Ludwig Wittgenstein as the Hoochie Koochie man? Why not? There's a crossover: blues and philosophy both exist to make sense of it all, to find meaning in the vicissitudes of living. Leading the fly out of the fly bottle doesn't have to end up as a treatise, it can also end up as a song. As this book forms one the Philosophy for Everyone series, with titles such as Cannabis -- What Were We Just Talking About? or Dating -- Flirting With Big Ideas, we know that it is not going to be too po-faced in its approach to putting this popular art form under the philosophical lens. And if the other books in this series are as good as this one, then I'll be searching them out, too ... The writing here is of a high order and the essays yield insights galore about the blues in its social, historical and cultural contexts and its personal and universal appeal." (Metapsychology Online Reviews, 27 April 2012)

About the Author

Jesse R. Steinberg is an assistant professor of philosophy and the director of the Environmental Studies Program at the University of Pittsburgh at Bradford. He has been a visiting professor at Victoria University in New Zealand, at the University of California at Riverside, and at the University of Illinois Urbana-Champaign. He has published a number of articles on topics including philosophy of mind, metaphysics, philosophy of religion, and ethics.

Abrol Fairweather is an instructor at San Francisco State University and the University of San Francisco. He has published in the area of Virtue Epistemology and sustains interests in philosophy of mind, metaphysics, and philosophy of language. He has contributed to popular culture volumes on Facebook and Dexter. The guitar, vocals, and lyrics of Lightnin' Hopkins and Mississippi John Hurt are major influences.

Series editor:

Fritz Allhoff is an associate professor in the philosophy department at Western Michigan University, as well as a senior research fellow at the Australian National University's Centre for Applied Philosophy and Public Ethics. In addition to editing the Philosophy for Everyone series, he is also the volume editor or co-editor for several titles, including Wine & Philosophy (Wiley-Blackwell, 2007), Whiskey & Philosophy (with Marcus P. Adams, Wiley, 2009), and Food & Philosophy (with Dave Monroe, Wiley-Blackwell, 2007). His academic research interests engage various facets of applied ethics, ethical theory, and the history and philosophy of science.