Pragmatist Aesthetics - 2nd Edition by Richard Shusterman (Paperback)

About the Book

This much acclaimed book has emerged as neo-pragmatism's most significant contribution to contemporary aesthetics. By articulating a deeply embodied notion of aesthetic experience and the art of living, and by providing a compellingly rigorous defense of popular art-crowned by...

Book Synopsis

This much acclaimed book has emerged as neo-pragmatism's most significant contribution to contemporary aesthetics. By articulating a deeply embodied notion of aesthetic experience and the art of living, and by providing a compellingly rigorous defense of popular art-crowned by a pioneer study of hip hop-Richard Shusterman reorients aesthetics towards a fresher, more relevant, and socially progressive agenda. The second edition contains an introduction where Shusterman responds to his critics, and it concludes with an added chapter that formulates his novel notion of somaesthetics.

Review Quotes

A challenging, deeply intelligent book.

A deeply satisfying work. Shusterman's knowledge of aesthetic theory, and in particular, current trends in what constitutes art, seems unparalleled. Inasmuch as he pushes the envelope of what hitherto has consisted of pragmatists aesthetics, Shusterman deserves to be called an original thinker.

Shusterman...has written a spirited, generous, powerful, and stylish essay in which the acuity of analytical philosophy is cross-bred to the vision of continental theory to produce a work that no one interested in the philosophy of art-or philosophy of life-can afford to ignore. It is clear, eloquent, fair, and urgent.

The first edition was a fine book. The additional chapter in this second edition expands the account of the aesthetic way of life. Shusterman's defense of popular culture as art is convincing, thorough, and welcome.

The renovated, more everyday conception of aesthetic experience that he [Shusterman] champions inPragmatist Aesthetis is deeply embodied, occasionally political, and oriented around the practical art of living.

Through a generous and inspired reinterpretation of John Dewey, Richard Shusterman establishes a theory of aesthetics that is liberated from the traditional dualisms and capable of reconciling art and the political.

About the Author

Richard Shusterman is Dorothy F. Schmidt Eminent Scholar Chair in the Humanities and Professor of Philosophy at Florida Atlantic University.