Papers by Richard Shusterman
The Philosophical Quarterly, 1995
The Journal of Aesthetics and Art Criticism, 1982
... any other pe-riod, that of ancient Greece has provided the paradigm of what literature is or ... more ... any other pe-riod, that of ancient Greece has provided the paradigm of what literature is or ... as it was in its glorious formative days; and if that means disregarding the visual-ity of the ... already in 1890 about the growing, and to his mind unjustified, role of textual visuality, and who ...
Eidos. A Journal for Philosophy of Culture, 2021
Archives de Philosophie, 2019
Richard Rorty entretient une relation ambigue avec l’esthetique. D’une part il accorde une place ... more Richard Rorty entretient une relation ambigue avec l’esthetique. D’une part il accorde une place centrale a la dimension esthetique dans l’activite philosophique elle-meme, puisque celle-ci ne doit pas faire appel a l’argumentation et a la raison, mais a l’imagination et a la creation de nouveaux vocabulaires ; de l’autre, il rejette au nom de l’anti-essentialisme l’idee de l’esthetique comme domaine de la culture distinct et unifie. L’article cherche a explorer les trois domaines ou la dimension esthetique a ete particulierement valorisee par Rorty : la notion d’interpretation en philosophie du langage, la creation de soi en ethique, le rapport entre la poetique et la philosophie sociale dans son analyse de la litterature.
Deutsche Zeitschrift für Philosophie, 2017
Although typically identified with discursive practices of writing and oral dialog that have long... more Although typically identified with discursive practices of writing and oral dialog that have long dominated its practice, philosophy has also asserted itself as something other and more than words; it claimed to be an entire way of life, an art of living dedicated to the pursuit of wisdom (as the word “philosophia” implies). After showing how discursive and non-discursive dimensions of ancient philosophy were designed to complement each other, this paper explains the reasons why even the basic philosophical task of self-knowledge requires discursive communicative tools. It then explores to what extent and in what ways philosophy can be practiced through non-linguistic means, by considering both Western and Asian sources.
Revue Internationale De Philosophie, Jun 1, 2002
Pierre Bourdieu's writings have great value for philosophy. His account of social space, I ha... more Pierre Bourdieu's writings have great value for philosophy. His account of social space, I have elsewhere argued, importantly advances one of the most central lines of analytic philosophy of language. Though Austin, Wittgenstein, and other ordinary-language philosophers have tried to explain the meaning of language by seeing it in terms of the social forms and contexts in which language is used, they never really provide a systematic, ramified analysis of the social forces, positions, stakes, roles and strategies that shape the social filed and thus structure the contexts of language. This is precisely what Bourdieu aims to provide. (') But besides this contribution and his offering of substantive philo sophical views on language, action, knowledge, mind, and art, Bourdieu has developed an extensive metaphilosophical critique of philosophy that affirms Pascal's demand that philosophy be more self critical (that "true philosophy pokes fun [se moque] at philosophy"). Bourdieu's focuses most intensely on what he calls "the critique of scholarly reason" or of "the scholastic point of view" (a term he derives from J.L. Austin), an intellectual approach whose dominant prestige and cultural entrenchment has also left contaminating traces
Internationales Jahrbuch für philosophische Anthropologie, 2015
In der antiken Sage von Amor und Psyche neidete Venus Psyches Schönheit. Weil alle Psyche ihrer S... more In der antiken Sage von Amor und Psyche neidete Venus Psyches Schönheit. Weil alle Psyche ihrer Schönheit wegen, nicht jedoch Venus anbeteten, sann Venus darauf, Psyche zu strafen, indem sie deren Liebe an eine abscheuliche Kreatur band. Diese Kreatur würde erscheinen, wenn der Pfeil des Begehrens ihres Sohnes Amor Psyche im Schlaf verletzte. Psyche verfiele dann dem ersten Ding, das sie nach dem Erwachen erblickte. Als aber Amor Psyche sah, war er von ihrer Schönheit so überwältigt, dass er sich versehentlich mit dem eigenen Pfeil verwundete und deshalb innigst in sie verliebte. Die Geschichte erzählt dann davon, wie Venus vergeblich versuchte, Amor und Psyche voneinander zu trennen – eine hübsche Allegorie der Schwierigkeit, Seele und Verlangen voneinander zu lösen. Obwohl diese Unternehmung so wenig wünschenswert wie erfolgversprechend ist, sollten wir uns doch vergegenwärtigen, dass sich Philosophen – auf der Suche nach einer Therapie, die vom Verlangen befreit – ihr häufig verschrieben haben. Aber die Geschichte vom Begehren und der Seele ruft noch ein anderes Unternehmen ins Bewusstsein, das gleichermaßen schwierig, unserer philosophischen Tradition sogar noch wesentlicher ist: die Trennung von Soma und Psyche, von Körper [body] und Seele. Weil so vielen Denkern der Körper die nie versiegende Quelle problematischen Verlangens (darunter des erotischen) ist, ließe sich Soma mit dem Amor dieser Sage identifizieren. Einer anderen Lesart folgend könnte Soma mit der abscheulichen Gestalt gleichgesetzt werden, mit welcher Psyche (die schöne Seele) dadurch gestraft werden sollte, dass sie sich an sie bindet und sich ihr unterwirft. Wie dem auch sei – eine berühmte, von Platons „Phaidon“ sich herschreibende Definition von Philosophie besagt, man lerne mit ihr zu sterben, wenn man die Seele aus ihrem beengenden körperlichen Gefängnis zu befreien weiß, welches das Streben nach Wissen behindert. Dieses philosophische Projekt mögen wir ontologischer oder axiologischer Gründe wegen ablehnen. Wenn wir aber behaupten, dass eine grundlegende Einheit zwischen Körper [body] und Seele (oder Körper und Geist [mind]) besteht und dass diese Einheit von grundlegender Bedeutung ist, bleibt das Problem, diese Einheit zu charakterisieren und letztlich zu erklären. Man kann diese Vereinigung als ontolo-
Contemporary Pragmatism, 2015
In responding to five symposium articles that discuss my book Thinking through the Body and my th... more In responding to five symposium articles that discuss my book Thinking through the Body and my theories of somaesthetics and pragmatism, this essay elaborates two central methodological orientations that guide my philosophical research. The first is transactional experiential inquiry in which inquiry can develop new directions, aims, methods, and standards through the dynamic experiences acquired in the course of the inquiry’s pursuit and in which its transactional experiences involve research that transcends familiar disciplinary limits and conventions. The second principle involves mitigating problematic dualisms by a strategy of inclusive disjunction. I deploy these principles in replying to the five commentaries. Besides clarifying issues in somaesthetics, my reply focuses on such topics as everyday aesthetics, eroticism, architecture, dance, Chinese philosophy, meliorism, and pragmatism.
Nijhoff International Philosophy Series, 1989
Politix, 1993
Légitimer la légitimation de l'art populaire. Richard Shusterman. [153-167]. A travers les ré... more Légitimer la légitimation de l'art populaire. Richard Shusterman. [153-167]. A travers les réponses à une série de critiques ayant suivi la parution de son livre L'Art à l'état vif, Richard Shusterman montre combien la légitimation de l'art populaire demeure une nécessité.
Philosophy and Literature, 1987
La reponse du lecteur dans la conception de la poesie et la critique litteraire de T. S. E.
The Philosophical Forum, 2005
Journal of the History of Ideas, 1985
I. The centenary of T. E. Hulme, born on September 16, 1983, has passed with surprising silence. ... more I. The centenary of T. E. Hulme, born on September 16, 1983, has passed with surprising silence. I have scanned the notices of literary and aesthetic journals and have not found any conferences or publications to commemorate this event and remember the poet-critic-philosopher who not long ago held center stage as a still influential father of modernism and the New Criticism. Indeed, in the late thirties, Hulme's reputation was so great that a reviewer in Scrutiny wrote of "The T. E. Hulme Myth" and felt the need to debunk it and minimize the importance and intrinsic interest of his ideas.' Interestingly, during Hulme's brief life, cut short by death in battle in 1917, he had comparatively little fame or influence;2 and now, after about four decades of posthumous fame (initiated by Herbert Read's publication of Hulme's Speculations in 1924),3 Hulme seems destined to sink back into oblivion, to be vaguely remembered merely as an influence on Eliot, Pound, and the Imagists. I come neither to bury Hulme nor to praise him but primarily to remember him. In doing this, I hope to correct some of the recent misinterpretations of his philosophy of literature, which perhaps have helped make him seem less interesting and memorable; and I would also like to point out the virtually unrecognized close connections of his thought with that of Moore and Russell, and thereby suggest that Hulme is philosophically something other and more than the mere Bergsonian propagandist he is typically portrayed to be. Finally, having corrected these errors of commission and omission in the interpretation of Hulme's thought, I shall go on to maintain that some of his central philosophical ideas and insights, which have been largely overlooked and neglected, are at the forefront of philosophical developments today. Therefore, before condemning Hulme to oblivion, we should recognize that he can be
The British Journal of Aesthetics, 1986
The British Journal of Aesthetics, 1983
IN A recent article in this journal Harold Osborne makes a systematic and instructive effort to e... more IN A recent article in this journal Harold Osborne makes a systematic and instructive effort to elucidate the notion of aesthetic order and to differentiate it from other kinds of order, viz., those distinguished by McTaggart in The Nature of Existence: causal order, serial order, and ...
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Papers by Richard Shusterman
"ESPERIENZA ESTETICA E ARTI POPOLARI. PROSPETTIVE SOMAESTETICHE SULLA TEORIA E LA PRATICA",
translation from English into Italian by Teresa Gallo and Stefano Marino,
edited by Stefano Marino,
MIMESIS, MILANO-UDINE 2023.
***
Il pensiero di Richard Shusterman rappresenta oggi un punto di riferimento importante all’interno del dibattito filosofico, in generale, ed estetico, in particolare. Partendo da un background filosofico-analitico ma aprendosi presto agli stimoli offerti dal pragmatismo e mantenendo un dialogo anche con autori e tradizioni di pensiero “continentali”, Shusterman ha offerto contributi originali e stimolanti su una grande varietà di pratiche estetiche della contemporaneità, concentrandosi sulla rivalutazione dell’esperienza estetica nel suo complesso e, soprattutto, sul recupero della dimensione della corporeità e del piacere. Ciò si è rivelato estremamente utile e proficuo dal punto di vista filosofico anche al fine di liberare l’indagine estetica da ogni suddivisione schematica, meramente dicotomica e astratta delle arti in “basse” e “alte”, “popolari” e “serie”, e al fine di elevare la dimensione corporea nel suo insieme, nella sua capacità unica di unire insieme natura e cultura. Di ciò e di molto altro ancora offrono una testimonianza esemplare i saggi di Shusterman selezionati per questa raccolta di suoi scritti in lingua italiana.
https://www.cambridge.org/core/books/ars-erotica/B201B916BEF4DA599A68E54F001B368B
"Philosophical Perspectives on Fashion" places philosophical approaches at the heart of contemporary fashion studies. Considering the mutual relationships between aesthetics, modern society and culture, fashion and the fine arts, and the way these relationships have influenced and shaped our views on identity and taste, this ground-breaking book also explores the various intellectual and cultural movements that inform how people dress. The leading fashion and philosophy scholars contributing to this volume refer to and apply theories posed by key thinkers of the modern and contemporary age, from Darwin and Wittgenstein to Husserl and Goodman, in order to answer questions such as: What is the essence of fashion and the reasons behind its fascination? What is 'anti-fashion'? What or who do we imitate when we 'follow' fashion? What is fashion criticism and what should it be? Anyone studying or interested in fashion or philosophy will find this book a rich source of ideas, insight and information. "Philosophical Perspectives on Fashion" is a valuable contribution to contemporary fashion theory, one that revitalises the way we look at the form, purpose and meaning of fashion.
TABLE OF CONTENTS.
Introduction: Philosophical Perspectives on Fashion,
Giovanni Matteucci and Stefano Marino
- 1 Philosophical Accounts of Fashion in the Nineteenth and Twentieth Century,
Stefano Marino
- 2 Fashion: A Conceptual Constellation,
Giovanni Matteucci
- 3 Anti-Fashion: If Not Fashion, Then What?,
Nickolas Pappas
- 4 Fits of Fashion: THe Somaesthetics of Style,
Richard Shusterman
- 5 On Fashion Criticism,
Lars Svendsen
- 6 Thought Without Concept: Carol Christian Poel's Paradoxical Aesthetics,
Christian Michel
- 7 Caprices of Fashion in Culture and Biology: Charles Darwin's Aesthetics of 'Ornament',
Winifried Menninghaus
- 8 Fashionable Proteus: The Euphoria of FAshion for Fashion's Sake,
Cesar Moreno-Marquez
- 9 The Fascination of Contingency: Fashion and Modern Society,
Elena Esposito
Index
REVIEWS.
“This edited volume is likely to provoke much-needed debate about the relationship between philosophy and fashion. Using a philosophical lens, the authors address and push questions with which fashion theorists have been grappling: is anti-fashion a useful concept in fashion criticism? Is there, or can there be, an essence of fashion? To what extent can fashion be understood as a dialectic between imitation and differentiation? To what extent does fashion rely on ambivalence and ambiguity? Philosophical Perspectives on Fashion will be a welcome addition to the literatures on fashion and philosophy alike.” – Susan B. Kaiser, University of California, Davis, USA,
“A timely and thought-provoking collection of contributions, which explore fashion from a specifically philosophical perspective and reflect on the complex and dynamic nature of fashion itself. This book, much needed in philosophy, will open the field to further debates and lines of inquiry.” – Flavia Loscialpo, Southampton Solent University, UK.
https://espes.ff.unipo.sk/index.php/ESPES/issue/view/24
The Northwest Philosophy Conference is held each fall, attracting philosophers from across the United States and abroad. The primary purpose of this conference is to provide a forum for philosophical work as a service to the profession. This has been the major professional philosophy conference in the region for the past 73 years.
The special guest of the conference is prof. Richard Shusterman, who will give a keynote speech titled Somaesthetics and the Fine Art of Eating.
This article revisits a Platonic idea that has been formative for the history of aesthetics and then explores how this idea can be reinterpreted meaningfully in today's aesthetic context. The Platonic idea I discuss (which Plato introduces in Ion and Phaedrus) is that artistic creation and its appreciative reception involve a form of divine possession. After exploring how this nonrational, supernatural idea has been critically countered yet repeatedly recurs in important subsequent theories of aesthetic experienced proposed by rational thinkers, my presentation suggests how we might give the notion of possession a more naturalistic explanation. I exemplify this through an analysis of performance art presented in The Adventures of the Man in Gold.
and Gadamer at Paris’ Goethe Institute. These two figures “virtually personify, in hermeneutics
and deconstruction, the two major and rival ‘schools’ of contemporary continental philosophy
associated with the primacy of interpretation.” Adopting a pragmatist perspective, the author
discusses their approaches to the issue of interpretation – different and often seen as mutually
exclusive. He claims that Derrida and Gadamer in fact have a great deal in common and tries to
show that American pragmatism offers a mode of mediation, which allows us to grasp their mutual
relations. The author concentrates on the three central issues that emerge from Derrida’s Three
Questions to Hans-Georg Gadamer, namely the context of interpretation, consensual continuity
versus rupture as the basis or precondition of interpretation, and the nature or possibility of perfect
dialogical understanding.
Authors: Jarosław Woźniak and Katarzyna Lisowska Translation approved by: Wojciech Małecki
Link to Video of Interview:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=p8fyLihLSlo
Link to audio file on Tate's website:
https://www.tate.org.uk/context-comment/audio/contested-territories-arthur-danto-thierry-de-duve-and-richard-shusterman
The talk can be streamed (Sunday, May 2) here: https://www.youtube.com/channel/UClOlayeuHaTmMdKqrep-Jwg?sub_confirmation=1
The opening lecture of ART (Aesthetics Research Torino) Philosophical Seminar will be delivered by Prof. Richard Shusterman on
March 9th at 3 p.m.
Location: Università di Torino - Aula Guzzo - Via Po 18 - Torino
Three centuries after his birth, Johann Joachim Winckelmann (1717-1768) is
still celebrated as the founder of archaeology and art history. His continued
fame rests chiefly on his pioneer role in these fields and on his influence on
such past masters as Goethe, Herder, Schiller, and Hegel. This lecture uses
the approach of somaesthetics to argue for his more-than-historical relevance
for contemporary aesthetic theory, despite the fact that his archaeological and
art historical judgments have been largely discredited. Winckelmann's
theoretical value today lies in his distinctively embodied approach to the
cultivation of taste and the understanding of art, exemplifying central themes
of contemporary somaesthetic theory.
Richard Shusterman is the Dorothy F. Schmidt Eminent Scholar in the
Humanities at the Florida Atlantic University. Educated at Jerusalem and
Oxford, he was chair of the Temple University Philosophy Department before
coming to FAU in 2005. He has held academic appointments in Paris, Berlin,
and Hiroshima and was awarded senior research Fulbright and NEH
fellowships. His widely translated research covers many topics in the human
and social sciences with particular emphasis on questions of philosophy,
aesthetics, culture, language, identity, and embodiment. Authored books
include T.S. Eliot and the Philosophy of Criticism (Columbia), Practicing
Philosophy (Routledge), Performing Live (Cornell), Surface and Depth
(Cornell), Pragmatist Aesthetics (Blackwell, 2nd ed. Rowman & Littlefield, and
translated into 12 languages), and most recently Body Consciousness
(Cambridge). His non-technical essays have been published in the Nation
and the Chronicle of Higher Education and in various art reviews and
catalogues, such as artpress and Dokumenta. He directs the FAU Center for
Body, Mind, and Culture.