This edited collection provides an in-depth and wide-ranging exploration of pragmatist philosopher Richard Shustermanâs distinctive project of âsomaesthetics,â devoted not only to better understanding bodily experience but also to greater mastery of somatic perception, performance, and presentation. Against contemporary trends that focus narrowly on conceptual and computational thinking, Shusterman returns philosophy to what is most fundamentalâthe sentient, expressive, human body with its creations of living beauty. Twelve scholars here provide penetrating critical analyses of Shusterman on ontology, perception, language, literature, culture, politics, aesthetics, cuisine, music, and the visual arts, including films of his work in performance art.
Jerold J. Abrams is Professor of Philosophy at Creighton University and editor of The Philosophy of Stanley Kubrick. His essays have appeared in The Transactions of the Charles S. Peirce Society, Practicing Pragmatist Aesthetics, Shustermanâs Pragmatism, and many other volumes.
"This book accurately reflects the diversity that can be seen in the research of philosophers inspired by Shusterman [â¦] Part of the bookâs strength is that the authors of the studies have known Shusterman personally for many years, they can see his entire oeuvre and, accordingly, are able to interpret certain details in depth [...] Abramsâs edited collection on Shustermanâs somaesthetics is like a journey in which rational planning progresses while evoking emotional memories. It brings the reader much closer to somaesthetics and its multiple possibilities of interpretation and application. The entire book, not least through the golden image of the philosopher without words, demonstrates that soundless screams cannot go unnoticed and the clamorous silence of the body can be a reality." - Nóra Horváth, in: The Journal of Somaesthetics 9/1-2 (2023), p. 39-45.
"For the first time, a book is devoted entirely to the practical and performative dimension of Shustermanâs somaesthetics. This is important because the aforementioned dimension is rich and complex, with several ramifications, including the question of performance, the question of popular arts and hip hop in particular, and the political question [...] The book does more than describe somaesthetics [...] It also allows its authors to criticize its foundations, open up debates, and/or propose the extension or reform some of its features, to put forward new theses whose ambition is to advance pragmatism on a general scale. [...] A book whose reading is undoubtedly experienced as an active, somatic, and affective experience." - Alice Dupas, in: Pragmatism Today 14/2 (2023), p. 85-89.
"Abrams has managed to compile a book that captures the immense complexity of Shustermanâs philosophy, art, and life (while still making no claim to completeness) [...] Although less than three hundred pages in length, the contents of the Abrams volume are extremely comprehensive and wide-ranging. This is due to the great choice of the authors of the texts, who are both true experts in Shustermanâs philosophy and undisputed experts in their respective fields of knowledge, which is reflected in the quality of the individual chapters of the book. [...] The added value of Abramsâ book is that the reader feels that Shusterman is somehow suddenly closer to him. Even though he knows him as a world renowned figure in contemporary philosophy, he suddenly sees him as a human being â a philosopher and an artist (in the conjunction of all of the above words) whose life creates philosophy, and whose philosophy is created by his life" - Lukáš Arthur Å vihura, in: The Slovak Journal of Aesthetics 12/2 (2023) [Full review]
"Jerold J. Abramsâs edited volume Shustermanâs Somaesthetics: From Hip Hop Philosophy to Politics and Performance Art, recently published in the Brill series âStudies in Somaesthetics,â aims (and, in my opinion, definitely succeeds) to offer a broad overview and a detailed interpretation of Richard Shustermanâs decades-long, thematically wide and pluralist, and quite often theoretically challenging, philosophical path." - Stefano Marino, in: The Slovak Journal of Aesthetics 12/2 (2023) [Full review]
part 1 Pragmatism and Somaesthetics
1âShustermanâs Pragmatist Philosophy
ââStefán Snævarr
2âFrom Pragmatism to Somaesthetics as Philosophy
ââAlexander Kremer
3âSomaesthetics, Somapower, and the Microphysics of Emancipation
ââLeszek Koczanowicz
4âLiving Beauty, Rethinking Rap Revisiting Shustermanâs Philosophy of Hip Hop
ââMax Ryynänen
5âSomaesthetics and Pathic Aesthetics
ââTonino Griffero
6âEating as an Aesthetic Activity Somaesthetics and Food Studies
ââDorota Koczanowicz
part 2 Performative Philosophy and the Man in Gold
7âSomaesthetics, Photography, and the Man in Gold
ââJerold J. Abrams
8âAn Exquisitely Beautiful Longing A Lacanian Reading of The Adventures of the Man in Gold
ââDiane Richard-Allerdyce
9âShusterman as Philosopher and the Man in Gold
ââYvonne Bezrucka
10âThe Golden Turn in Shustermanâs Somaesthetics The Magical Figure of the Man in Gold
ââElse Marie Bukdahl
11âOn Shustermanâs Somaesthetic Practice The Case of the Man in Gold
ââYang Lu
12âSomaesthetics and Cinema The Man in Gold in the Film Walk the Golden Night
ââJerold J. Abrams
part 3 Shusterman in His Own Words
13âSomaesthetics, Pragmatism, and the Man in Gold Remarks on the Preceding Chapters
ââRichard Shusterman
14âOn the Path of Somaesthetics An Interview with Richard Shusterman
ââYanping Gao
Index
This volume will be of interest to undergraduates, graduate students, professors, working in American philosophy, aesthetics (including popular art), and embodiment.