Philosophy: aesthetics Books

Book SynopsisA ground-breaking attempt at a prolegomenon to the study of style, this collection brings together eleven essays by distinguished philosophers, literary theorists, art historians, and musicologists, all addressing the role played by style in the arts and literature.

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Book SynopsisRediscovering Aesthetics brings together prominent international voices from art history, philosophy and artistic practice who reflect on current notions, functions, and applications of aesthetics in their distinctive fields.Trade Review"Rediscovering Aesthetics is an impressive collection that lives up to the mission outlined in its subtitle...this book is to be highly recommended to both experts and merely curious readers."—Vladimir D. Thomas, Philosophy in Review"Rediscovering Aesthetics collects the essays of a number of the most distinguished and articulate intellectuals and artists of our day, all of whom have original and challenging things to say about important issues. This powerful book, which focuses mostly on the visual arts, has ramifications for the reconsideration of the aesthetic in many different areas of artistic practice."—Martin Jay, University of California, Berkeley"Rediscovering Aesthetics is a valuable contribution that begins with the premise that recent developments in art history and practice have engendered a recovery of the place and role of aesthetics. It refreshingly dispenses with questions of aesthetics' origins and instead inserts itself in the midst of modern histories of art."—Tom Huhn, School of Visual ArtsTable of Contents@fmh1: Contents @toc4: List of Contributors @toc4: (Re)Discovering Aesthetics: An Introduction @toc1: I. Aesthetics in Art History and Art Theory @toc2: 1. Kunstwissenschaft versus Asthetik: The Historians' Revolt Against Aesthetics @tocca: Richard Woodfield @toc2: 2. Aesthetics and the Two Cultures: Why Art and Science Should Be Allowed to Go Their Separate Ways @tocca: James Elkins @toc2: 3. Stones of Solace @tocca: Michael Ann Holly @toc2: 4. The Dogma of Conviction @tocca: David Raskin @toc2: 5. Sensation in the Wild: On Not Naming Newman, Judd, Riley, and Serra @tocca: Richard Shiff @toc2: 6. Kant's "Free-Play" in the Light of Minimal Art @tocca: Thierry de Duve @toc1: II. Aesthetics in Philosophy @toc2: 7. The Future of Aesthetics @tocca: Arthur C. Danto @toc2: 8. Retrieving Kant's Aesthetics for Art Theory After Greenberg @tocca: Diarmuid Costello @toc2: 9. Artistic Creativity: Illusions, Realities, Futures @tocca: Paul Crowther @toc2: 10. Gadamer and the Ambiguity of Appearance @tocca: Nicholas Davey @toc2: 11. Modernisms and Mediations @tocca: Peter Osborne @toc2: 12. Aesthetics Beyond Aesthetics @tocca: Wolfgang Welsch @toc2: 13. Intuition and Concrete Particularity in Kant's Transcendental Aesthetic @tocca: Adrian Piper @toc1: III. Aesthetics in Artistic and Curatorial Practice @toc2: 14. Seasonal Fractional Political Idiosyncratic Aesthetics @tocca: Carolee Schneemann @toc2: 15. Toward an Ophthalmology of the Aesthetic and an Orthopedics of Seeing @tocca: Robert Morris @toc2: 16. The Social Turn: Collaboration and Its Discontents @tocca: Claire Bishop @toc2: 17. The Richter Effect on the Regeneration of Aesthetics @tocca: Michael Kelly @toc4: Notes @toc4: Index

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Book SynopsisJulian Young presents Richard Wagner as an important philosopher of art and life, first as a utopian anarchist-communist and later as a Schopenhauerian pessimist. Understanding Wagnerâs philosophy is crucial to understanding his operas, as it is to understanding Nietzsche, Schopenhauer, and Heidegger. Trade ReviewKeenly attuned to Wagner’s intimations of impersonal immortality, Julian Young explains Wagner’s evolving views on the redemptive power of musical drama, an artistic salvation that remains possible even after the death of God. By critically examining Wagner’s philosophical transformation from a Feuerbachian anarcho-revolutionary to a Schopenhauerian world-renunciate, Young uncovers the enduring spiritual quest at the heart of Wagner’s work: Our deep and enduring philosophical need to learn how to die well. -- Iain Thomson, University of New MexicoIn deft, elegant prose, Young convincingly reconstructs two distinct Wagnerian philosophical positions, especially as concerns the relationship between art and society: an early revolutionary and a later Schopenhauerian position. In doing so, Young casts considerable light on the meanings of Wagner's musical dramas, and presents an array of fascinating positions on the proper relations between art and society for contemporary reflection. This is an important book for anyone interested in late-nineteenth-century philosophy of music and art. -- Sandra Shapshay, Indiana University, BloomingtonYoung here presents the results of extensive research into Wagner's philosophical writings. Perhaps the most surprising thing one learns is that Wagner had a relatively clear and coherent philosophy. In fact, Wagner’s philosophy evolved over time, and he always saw himself as more than a composer of operas. Early on, Wagner, influenced by Hegel, maintained that art and music could play a key role in changing the world for the better. Later, his philosophical intuitions and artistic aims would be molded by Schopenhauer’s pessimistic but redemptive views of music. Today, Wagner would be saddened, though perhaps not surprised, to find that most of his operas are heard only by the affluent—a situation that is the antithesis of what he was trying to do. Young’s straightforward writing style is more than welcome in explaining 19th-century German philosophical concepts, which can get very complex very fast. This book is beautifully written, clear, and concise. Summing Up: Highly recommended. Upper-level undergraduates and above. * CHOICE *Table of ContentsPart I: Early Wagner Chapter 1: The Way We are Now Chapter 2: The Greek Ideal Chapter 3: The Death of Art Chapter 4: The Artwork of the Future: Exploratory Questions Part II Later Wagner Chapter 5: Schopenhauer Chapter 6: Wagner’s Appropriation of Schopenhauer Chapter 7: Wagner’s Final Thoughts Epilogue: Wagner and Nietzsche

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Book SynopsisFeatures a 48-page 'Afterword - 1980'.

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Book Synopsis"Languages of Art".Trade ReviewLike Dewey, he has revolted against the empiricist dogma and the Kantian dualisms which have compartmentalized philosophical thought. . . . Unlike Dewey, he has provided detailed incisive argumentation, and has shown just where the dogmas and dualisms break down. --Richard Rorty, The Yale Review

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Book SynopsisTrade Review"The Challenge of Surrealism is an important intellectual and personal document that not only illuminates some of Adorno’s major philosophical concerns from an unexpected perspective, but also presents the record of a deeply personal and complex relationship characterized by attraction and repulsion, desire and distance, immediacy and deferral."—Gerhard Richter, Brown UniversityTable of ContentsContentsEditor’s Note Introduction. Departures: Critical Theory and SurrealismRita BischofSurrealism: Last Snapshot of the European IntelligentsiaWalter BenjaminSurrealism ReconsideredTheodor W. AdornoCritical Theory and Surreal PracticeElisabeth LenkCorrespondence between Theodor W. Adorno and Elisabeth Lenk, 1962–1969Introduction to the CorrespondenceElisabeth LenkSense and Sensibility: Afterword to Louis Aragon’s Paris PeasantElisabeth LenkIntroduction to the German Edition of Charles Fourier’s The Theory of the Four Movements and the General DestiniesElisabeth LenkSurrealist ReadingsCastor Zwieback (Theodor W. Adorno and Carl Dreyfus)NotesPublication HistoryIndex

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Book SynopsisFor his 2007 critically acclaimed 33 1/3 series title, Let's Talk About Love, Carl Wilson went on a quest to find his inner Céline Dion fan and explore how we define ourselves by what we call good and bad, what we love and what we hate. At once among the most widely beloved and most reviled and lampooned pop stars of the past few decades, Céline Dion's critics call her mawkish and overblown while millions of fans around the world adore her huge pipes and even bigger feelings. How can anyone say which side is right? This new, expanded edition goes even further, calling on thirteen prominent writers and musicians to respond to themes ranging from sentiment and kitsch to cultural capital and musical snobbery. The original text is followed by lively arguments and stories from Nick Hornby, Krist Novoselic, Ann Powers, Mary Gaitskill, James Franco, Sheila Heti and others. In a new afterword, Carl Wilson examines recent cultural changes in love and hate, including the impact of technTrade ReviewLike the whole world, I'm a fan of Carl Wilson's Celine Dion book. * Jonathan Lethem *An evergreen classic of music criticism--a love letter from a cerebral pop aesthete to the music he sincerely, almost sentimentally hates. * Rob Sheffield *Carl Wilson is a profound listener and an extraordinary writer. Along with being a tremendously important piece of criticism, Let’s Talk About Love is an agile, moving, and generous exploration of the music that accompanies us, welcome or not, on the travels we all need to make on our own. It is a beautiful, funny, unerringly concise book that invites repeated readings, new conversations, and a thoughtful engagement with the culture of our time. * John K. Samson *The book is laugh-out-loud funny, whip-smart about contemporary thought, and fascinating in its many voices, but, readers, beware—you may wind up humming that song for days afterward. -- Eloise Kinney * Booklist *[I]t’s a conversation worth having: as a dialogue between Wilson and his 13 disciples, with peers in social circles, and ultimately with oneself. Why we like what we like is always a fun topic to discuss, but it’s often more challenging and more enlightening to discuss the converse: why we don’t like what we don’t like… Any investigation into cool is incomplete without due consideration of too-cool-for. Wilson has provided a primer for that discourse. -- Kurtt Gottshalk * Brooklyn Rail *…the recently updated Let's Talk About Love—cheekily re-subtitled Why Other People Have Such Bad Taste and bundled with a host of excellent accompanying essays from the book's admirers including Krist Novoselic, Nick Hornby, Ann Powers, and James Franco—is a welcome excuse to revisit the main text in light of our current state of hyperspeed discourse. It's also a good excuse to catch up with Wilson, who continues to be an essential voice in the rock writer community while serving as Slate's music critic. -- Ryan Dombal * Pitchfork *Let’s Talk About Love…is not just a critical study of one Céline Dion album, but an engaging discussion of pop criticism itself. -- Elias Leight * LA Review of Books *In this gnostic context, Carl Wilson’s Let’s Talk About Love: A Journey to the End of Taste, first published in 2007, was a counter-intuitive masterstroke. Wilson’s gamble—that even people who hate Céline Dion would be curious to read an entire book about why they hate her, and what that hatred might mean—paid off handsomely: Let’s Talk About Love was widely and enthusiastically reviewed outside the usual music-geek circles, Wilson appeared on NPR and The Colbert Report, and last year he was hired as Slate’s chief music critic, as plum a gig as a pop critic can expect in today’s collapsing media economy. -- Ellis Avery * Public Books *Freaking brilliant. -- Will Hermes * Hippies and Hipsters *Voted a Best Music Book 2014 * The Guardian *Carl Wilson’s 2007 entry in the 33 1/3 library of pocket-sized books about classic albums is one of the most celebrated in the series. The author goes against the critical grain, not because he defends the music of this much-maligned international phenomenon. Wilson spends most of the book putting Dion into social and cultural context that in the end does not win him over to her kind of music. Wilson’s book, unlike most criticism, openly invites dialogue, even providing an email contact for readers to beat their own breasts for and against Céline Dion. -- Pat Padua * Spectrum Culture *The 33 1/3 series lets writers write (mini) book length tomes based on or inspired by an individual album. It's produced some intriguing experiments, like John Darnielle's novella inspired by Black Sabbath's Masters of Reality (a precursor to this year's debut novel, Wolf In White Van), but in 2007 Carl Wilson exploded the entire premise. He picked an album he hated - Celine Dion's Let's Talk About Love - and used it to enter a discourse on what determines good and bad taste. Seven years later, "poptimism" is practically standard practice, and Wilson's tome is a massively influential text in pop criticism. This year, Bloomsbury separated it from 33 1/3 and let it stand on its own in an expanded editions with a whackload of new material. Wilson's original work seemed like it examined Celine from every possible angle, but the 13 new essays, from writers like Nick Hornby, Owen Pallett and Nirvana's Krist Novoselic, show that he may have left a few stones unturned. -- Richard Trapunski * Chart Attack *An expanded version of Wilson's 2007 book for the 33 1/3 series with additional thoughts from 13 writers including James Franco, Ann Powers, Nick Hornby and others. An incredible look at pop culture -- and Celine Dion. -- The Ten Best Books of 2014 * Papermag *Table of ContentsA NOTE FROM THE PUBLISHER PART I Let’s Talk About Love: A Journey to the End of Taste Carl Wilson 1. Let’s Talk About Hate 2. Let’s Talk About Pop (and Its Critics) 3. Let’s Talk in French 4. Let’s Talk About World Conquest 5. Let’s Talk About Schmaltz 6. Let’s Sing Really Loud 7. Let’s Talk About Taste 8. Let’s Talk About Who’s Got Bad Taste 9. Let’s Talk with Some Fans 10. Let’s Do a Punk Version of “My Heart Will Go On” (or, Let’s Talk About Our Feelings) 11. Let’s Talk About Let’s Talk About Love 12. Let’s Talk About Love PART II Essays: What We Talk About When We Talk About Love Carl Wilson, “Introduction” Nick Hornby, “The Artists We Deserve” Krist Novoselic, “With the Lights On, It’s Less Useless” Ann Powers, “If the Girls Were All Transported” Mary Gaitskill, “The Most Obvious Thing” Jason King, “Compared to What?” Daphne Brooks, “Let’s Talk About Diana Ross (In Memory of Trayvon Martin)” Drew Daniel, “Deep in the Game” Sukhdev Sandhu, “Children of the Corn” James Franco, “Acting In and Out of Context” Marco Roth and the Editors of n+1, “Too Much Sociology” Jonathan Sterne, “Giving Up on Giving Up on Good Taste” Owen Pallett, “When I Come Home” Sheila Heti, “Playlist: Let’s Listen to Love” PART III Afterword Carl Wilson, “Let’s Talk Later” ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS NOTES ON CONTRIBUTORS

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Book SynopsisA passionate and moving tribute to the captivating power of dance, not just as an art form but as a language that transcends barriersTrade Review“[A] smart, bracing book of reflection, analysis, memoir and history. . . . Even people with some experience of dance and lifetimes of attending performances will be impressed by the author’s range and expertise. Obscure anecdotes and facts are scattered throughout, little gifts to the reader.”—Willard Spiegelman, Wall Street Journal“Mindy Aloff mines her decades of expertise as a dance critic, writer, and teacher to answer the question of why—and how—dance functions in our world. Why Dance Matters is a compelling, multi-faceted guide that elucidates dance’s integral connection to human experience.”—Marjorie Folkman, associate professor of professional practice, Barnard College“If dance is a language, then Aloff has decoded its nuances in a book for the ages. She could not be more on pointe. I loved it.”—Allegra Kent, author of Once a Dancer . . .“Animated by her acute intelligence, Mindy Aloff’s way of looking at the dance reminds me of that of Edwin Denby, our greatest dance critic, whose ‘imagination was huge.’”—David Lehman, author of The Mysterious Romance of Murder: Crime, Detection, and the Spirit of Noir“When it comes to blending the poetry and history of dance, there’s no better writer than Mindy Aloff. With Why Dance Matters, Aloff’s writing pours forth with a finesse comparable to that of a Fred Astaire dance variation.”—Justin Peck, resident choreographer, New York City Ballet“Mindy Aloff has written a marvelously wide-ranging yet warmly personal book, rich with experience and insight. Her knowledge is deep; her enthusiasm is irresistible. The effect is of a tour of the dance world with a wise and witty friend.”—Claudia Roth Pierpont, staff writer, New Yorker

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Book SynopsisNow available in a fully revised and updated second edition, this accessible and insightful introduction outlines the central theories and ongoing debates in the philosophy of art. Covers a wide range of topics, including the definition and interpretation of art, the connections between artistic and ethical judgment, and the expression and elicitation of emotions through art Includes discussion of prehistoric, non-Western, and popular mass arts, extending the philosophical conversation beyond the realm of Fine Art Details concrete applications of complex theoretical concepts Poses thought-provoking questions and offers fully updated annotated reading lists at the end of each chapter to encourage and enable further research Table of ContentsList of Figures vi Preface vii Acknowledgments x 1 Evolution and Culture 1 2 Defining Art 24 3 Aesthetics and the Philosophy of Art 49 4 Varieties of Art 80 5 Interpretation 106 6 Expression and Emotional Responses 131 7 Pictorial Representation and the Visual Arts 161 8 The Value of Art 193 Index 225

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Book SynopsisA comparative study of early Eastern and Western philosophy. It seeks to prove that the seemingly separate metaphysical schemes of Greek and Indian cultures have mutually influenced one another over a long period of time, to the point that today's Western world is the product of both.

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Book SynopsisThe volume The Many Faces of Beauty joins the rich debate on beauty and aesthetic theory by presenting an ambitious, interdisciplinary examination of various facets of beauty in nature and human society. The contributors ask such questions as, Is there beauty in mathematical theories? What is the function of arts in the economy of cultures? What are the main steps in the historical evolution of aesthetic theories from ancient civilizations to the present? What is the function of the ugly in enhancing the expressivity of art? and What constitutes beauty in film? The sixteen essays, by eminent scientists, critics, scholars, and artists, are divided into five parts. In the first, a mathematician, physicist, and two philosophers address beauty in mathematics and nature. In the second, an anthropologist, psychologist, historian of law, and economist address the place of beauty in the human mind and in society. Explicit philosophical reflections on notoriously vexing issues,Trade Review“In 2012, the Notre Dame Institute for Advanced Study (NDIAS) sponsored “The Many Faces of Beauty” conference, which offered a deep dive into the debate on beauty and aesthetic theory. This collection of 16 essays from prominent artists, scientists, mathematicians and critics features three Notre Dame scholars: The Huisking Professor of Theology Cyril O’Regan, the Rev. Joyce Professor of German Language and Literature Mark Roche, and J. Dudley Andrew ’67.” —Notre Dame Magazine

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Book SynopsisEdmund Burke was one of the foremost philosophers of the eighteenth century and wrote widely on aesthetics, politics and society. In this landmark work, he propounds his theory that the sublime and the beautiful should be regarded as distinct and wholly separate states - the first, an experience inspired by fear and awe, the second an expression of pleasure and serenity. Eloquent and profound, A Philosophical Enquiry is an involving account of our sensory, imaginative and judgmental processes and their relation to artistic appreciation. Burke''s work was hugely influential on his contemporaries and also admired by later writers such as Matthew Arnold and William Wordsworth. This volume also contains several of his early political works on subjects including natural society, government and the American colonies, which illustrate his liberal, humane views.Table of ContentsList of AbbreviationsA Chronology of Edmund BurkeIntroductionFurther ReadingA Note on the TextsA Vindication of Natural Society (1756; second edition, 1757)A Philosophical Enquiry into the Origin of Our Ideas of the Sublime and Beautiful (1757; second edition, 1759)Thoughts on the Cause of the Present Discontents (1770; third edition, 1770)Speech on American Taxation (1774; third edition, 1775)Speech on Conciliation with the Colonies(1775; third edition, 1775)Letter to the Sheriffs of Bristol on the Affairs of America (1777; third edition, 1777)NotesBiographica

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Book SynopsisBoredom and Art examines the use of boredom as a strategy in modern and contemporary art to resist or frustrate the effects of consumerism and capitalism. This book traces the emergence of what Haladyn terms the will to boredom in which artists, writers and philosophers actively attempt to use the lack of interest inherent in the state of being 'bored' to challenge people. Instead of accepting the prescribed meanings of life given to us by consumer or mass culture, boredom represents the possibility of creating meaning: 'a threshold of great deeds' in Walter Benjamin's memorable wording. It is this conception of boredom as a positive experience of modern subjectivity that is the main critical position of Haladyn's study, in which he proposes that boredom is used by artists as a form of aesthetic resistance that, at its most positive, is the will to boredom.

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Book SynopsisIn today''s art world many strange, even shocking, things qualify as art. In this Very Short Introduction Cynthia Freeland explains why innovation and controversy are valued in the arts, weaving together philosophy and art theory with many fascinating examples. She discusses blood, beauty, culture, money, museums, sex, and politics, clarifying contemporary and historical accounts of the nature, function, and interpretation of the arts. Freeland also propels us into the future by surveying cutting-edge web sites, alongside the latest research on the brain''s role in perceiving art. This clear, provocative book engages with the big debates surrounding our responses to art and is an invaluable introduction to anyone interested in thinking about art. ABOUT THE SERIES: The Very Short Introductions series from Oxford University Press contains hundreds of titles in almost every subject area. These pocket-sized books are the perfect way to get ahead in a new subject quickly. Our expert authors combine facts, analysis, perspective, new ideas, and enthusiasm to make interesting and challenging topics highly readable.Trade ReviewMouthwatering design-compact, colorful, sturdy. Can travel in one's pocket. * Walks of Art, Oluwatoyin Vincent Adepoju *Admirable for its compactness, reader-friendliness, this 'very short introduction' is nevertheless notable for its wide-ranging discussion of matters germane to the field of contemporary art. Should be a treat for the art-lovers amongst the academics. * U.S.I. Journal *Table of ContentsList of Illustrations ; 1. Blood and Beauty ; 2. Paradigms and Purposes ; 3. Cultural Crossings ; 4. Money, Markets, Museums ; 5. Gender, Genius, and Guerrilla Girls ; 6. Cognition, Creation, Comprehension ; 7. Digitizing and Disseminating ; Conclusion ; References ; Further Reading ; Index

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Book SynopsisThe great philosopher, essayist, poet, and novelist masterfully offers his fascinating outline of Aesthetics Theory. Drawing on the art, literature, and social sciences involved, Santayana discusses the nature of beauty, form, and expression.

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Book SynopsisWhen originally published in 1960, this was the first complete English translation since 1799 of Kant's early work on aesthetics. More literary than philosophical, "Observations" shows Kant as a man of feeling rather than the dry thinker he often seemed to readers of the three "Critiques".Table of ContentsTRANSLATOR'S INTRODUCTION NOTE ON THE TRANSLATION OBSERVATIONS ON THE FEELING OF THE BEAUTIFUL AND SUBLIME SECTION ONE: Of the Distinct Objects of the Feeling of the Beautiful and Sublime SECTION Two: Of the Attributes of the Beautiful and Sublime in Man in General SECTION THREE : Of the Distinction of the Beautiful and Sublime in the Interrelations of the Two Sexes SECTION FOUR: Of National Characteristics, so far as They Depend upon the Distinct Feeling of the Beautiful and Sublime TRANSLATOR'S NOTES

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Book SynopsisCamera Lucida, Roland Barthes''s personal, wide-ranging, and contemplative volume--and the last book he published--finds the author applying his influential perceptiveness and associative insight to the subject of photography.Commenting on artists such as Avedon, Clifford, Mapplethorpe, and Nadar, Barthes presents photography as being outside the codes of language or culture, acting on the body as much as on the mind, and rendering death and loss more acutely than any other medium. This groundbreaking approach established Camera Lucida as one of the most important books of theory on the subject, along with Susan Sontag''s On Photography.

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Book SynopsisObject Lessons is a series of short, beautifully designed books about the hidden lives of ordinary things. For as long as people have traveled to distant lands, they have brought home objects to certify the journey. More than mere merchandise, these travel souvenirs take on a personal and cultural meaning that goes beyond the object itself. Drawing on several millennia of examplesfrom the relic-driven quests of early Christians, to the mass-produced tchotchkes that line the shelves of a Disney gift shoptravel writer Rolf Potts delves into a complicated history that explores issues of authenticity, cultural obligation, market forces, human suffering, and self-presentation. Souvenirs are shown for what they really are: not just objects, but personalized forms of folk storytelling that enable people to make sense of the world and their place in it.''Object Lessons is published in partnership with an essay series in The Atlantic.Souvenir features illustTrade ReviewSouvenir, a sweet new book by Rolf Potts, is a little gem (easily tucked into a jacket pocket) filled with big insights … Souvenir explores our passions for such possessions and why we are compelled to transport items from one spot to another … Souvenir's introduction, titled "An Embarrassment of Eiffel Towers," is a delight to ponder. * Forbes *Potts guides readers through a philosophical, anthropological, and historical study of the objects we collect. Why do we buy souvenirs? What historical roots ground this ritual? Is one way of collecting souvenirs better than others? Potts shares stories behind his personal souvenirs, showing that uniquely personal emotions imbue our collected objects with meaning. Collecting souvenirs has been a way to mythologize his life, to externalize memories in a narrative form and maintain recollection of distant worlds. * The Rumpus *Few of us would call ourselves collectors, but most travelers have, at some point or other, bought a keychain, pocketed a seashell, or saved a ticket stub from a vacation. Turns out, as Mr. Potts notes in a new little book called Souvenir, there’s more to this seemingly simple (perhaps frivolous to some) practice than meets the eye … Souvenir offers ideas about what may be in play when we seek mementos … In the end, Souvenir suggests that the meaning of a keepsake is not fixed (its importance to the owner can change over time) and that its significance is bound up in the traveler’s identity. * The New York Times *This book takes a deep, thorough interest in the kitschy keychains you casually picked up at the airport, or the seashell you tucked in your pocket during a walk on the beach, or the carefully chosen scarf you found for your mother-in-law while shopping in Paris … It is a fascinating journey that covers a lot of ground, and the author muses upon it with an engaging and charming curiosity. Readers of this little treatise will never look at souvenirs the same way again. Five stars. * San Francisco Book Review *Rolf Potts writes with the soul of an explorer and a scholar’s love of research. Much like the objects that we bestow with meaning, this book carries a rich, lingering resonance. A gem. * Andrew McCarthy, actor, director and author of The Longest Way Home (2013) *In this slender but engrossing study of the phenomenology of souvenirs, Rolf Potts pinpoints the strange duality of travel, for where you 'go' is rarely identical to where you go. After reading it, I'll never be able to look at a Statue of Liberty key chain, Grand Canyon postcard, or Eiffel Tower ashtray in quite the same way again. If you love to travel, this book is essential. * Tom Bissell, journalist and author of Apostle: Travels Among the Tombs of the Twelve (2016) *This book is a journey through time, a history lesson and a look into the human psyche all in one. An educational book from a series, for anyone looking to learn a little about everyday objects in our lives and their significances to us. * This Girl Reads Blog *Potts takes us on a meditative sojourn across several millennia as he describes the evolution of travel from the early nomadic migrations to religious pilgrimages to modern tourism … With a natural fluency, Potts also weaves in personal stories and epiphanic moments related to his own souvenir hunting and gathering during his many, varied quests around the globe. Through it all, he shows us how, far from the superficial and mindless consumerism it may seem, the souvenir ritual is closely connected to our core sense of self even as the souvenir itself is no longer as fully rooted in its actual place. 8 stars. * PopMatters *A treasure trove of … fascinating deep dives into the history of travel keepsakes … Potts walks us through the origins of some of the most popular vacation memorabilia, including postcards and the still confoundedly ubiquitous souvenir spoons. He also examines the history of the more somber side of mementos, those depicting crimes and tragedies. Overall, the book, as do souvenirs themselves, speaks to the broader issues of time, memory, adventure, and nostalgia. * The Boston Globe *Table of ContentsPreface 1: Introduction: An Embarrassment of Eiffel Towers 2: Souvenirs in the Age of Pilgrimage 3: Souvenirs in the Age of Enlightenment Interlude: Museums of the Personal 4: Souvenirs in the Age of Mechanical Reproduction 5: Souvenirs and Human Suffering 6: Souvenirs and (the Complicated Notion of) Authenticity 7: Souvenirs, Memory, and the Shortness of Life Notes Index

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Book SynopsisObject Lessons is a series of short, beautifully designed books about the hidden lives of ordinary things.It's happening all the time, all around us. We cover it up. We ignore it. Rust takes on the many meanings of this oxidized substance, showing how technology bleeds into biology and ecology. Jean-Michel Rabate combines art, science, and autobiography to share his fascination with peeling paints and rusty metal sheets. Rust, he concludes, is a place where things living, built, and remembered commingle.Object Lessons is published in partnership with an essay series in The Atlantic.Trade ReviewRabate counters our instinctively negative view of rust with a surprisingly wide variety of examples drawn from philosophy as well as the arts and sciences for a strikingly and broadly convincing argument as to the merits of rust … Rabate presents rust as an imperfection with unlimited possibilities. He clarifies its role in our lives and complicates how we value its role. He brings readers his family rouille recipe and the news that someday soon, science may give us a green rust capable of cleaning our water and soil … He provides plenty of food for thought as we run into these references across daily life. * PopMatters *This is a witty, delightfully eclectic fantasy and fugue on the theme of rust, which, it turns out, is a perfect metaphor for an aesthetics of metamorphosis in and after modernism. Rust has the ruddy glow of active thinking in the process of self-transformation. Rust not only doesn’t sleep, it never stops giving off sparks. * Charles Bernstein, Donald T. Regan Professor of English and Comparative Literature, University of Pennsylvania, USA *Through his elegant alchemical associations, Rabaté spins Rust to gold. * Vanessa Place, artist and criminal defense attorney *Rust has its fascinating moments, those deeply poetic instants where metaphor becomes real and you get a tiny glimpse of the wonder that can reside inside seemingly ordinary items. * San Francisco Book Review *Table of ContentsIntroduction 1. How to Live with Global Rust 2. Hegel and Ruskin, from the Inorganic to the Organic 3. Interlude: Blood-work 4. Rats and Jackals, Kafka after von Hofmannsthal 5. Aesthetics of Rust Conclusion: Fougères to Marseilles: Green Rust or Edible Rouille? Acknowledgments Notes Index

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Book SynopsisThe world’s most renowned critical theorist—who defined the field of postcolonial studies—has radically reoriented her thinking. Finding the neat polarities of tradition and modernity, colonial and postcolonial, no longer sufficient, she argues that aesthetic education is the last available instrument for implementing global justice and democracy.Trade ReviewGayatri Chakravorty Spivak’s latest collection of essays offers a timely reminder of what the real and powerful ends of education might be… [The essays] cover the breadth of an extraordinary intellectual career… The essays, for all their diversity, have the quality of a cumulative, long retrospection, a slow-burning consideration of what it means to teach, how faultily we do it and how we might do better by those who most want to learn and have least opportunity… It is, though, Spivak’s assertion, after Schiller, that an aesthetic education remains the strongest resource available for the cause of global justice and democracy. The homogenizing and pacifying effects of globalization, which Spivak so routinely lambasts, here, she argues, can never extend ‘to the sensory equipment of the experiencing being.’ And here she has never sounded more persuasive, identifying in arts education the evocation of a phenomenology at feeling and the engendering of critical thinking that are posited beyond the logic of capital. -- Shahidha Bari * Times Higher Education *Spivak is one of the most creative and influential scholars of the humanities of the past four decades; this volume shows the range and variety of her interests in topics ranging from Jacques Derrida, postcolonial studies, women in the Global South, migration in a global (arguably ‘planetary’) era, translation, and aesthetic education… She brings a profound knowledge of literary and cultural theory to her studies of ‘culture on the run, the vanishing present.’ Some of the essays here are classics, others will become so. -- K. Tölölyan * Choice *[A] rewarding series of meditations on the possibility of reading, learning, and teaching that would encourage the full flowering of cultural, sexual, and linguistic diversity and resist the homogenizing force of globalization… The gathered texts are a testament to a fundamental faith in the power of literature that is never less than inspiring. * Publishers Weekly *This captivating collection of lectures delivered over the course of a quarter century asks us to attend to the profoundly democratic possibilities of the imagination. Aesthetic education empowers us to apprehend and negotiate what Spivak calls the ‘double bind at the heart of democracy.’ At a time when the humanities are expected to genuflect before the sciences and privatization and professionalization displace knowledge, Spivak urges us not only to stand tall but to insist that ethical solidarities are only possible through the rigorous training of the imagination. -- Angela Y. Davis, University of California, Santa CruzSpivak remains an indispensable leader and guide in the exhilarating conceptual adventure—the trip—which, since the late sixties, we’ve called theory. Aesthetic Education presents us with lessons that she has learnt on the way—difficult, defiant, sober lessons for these unpromising times. They demand our attention. -- Simon During, University of Queensland

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Book SynopsisSince its publication in 1936, Walter Benjamin's Artwork essay has become a canonical text about the status and place of the fine arts in modern mass culture. Benjamin was especially concerned with the ability of new technologiesnotably film, sound recording, and photographyto reproduce works of art in great number. Benjamin could not have foreseen the explosion of imagery and media that has occurred during the past fifty years. Does Benjamin's famous essay still speak to this new situation? That is the question posed by the editors of this book to a wide range of leading scholars and thinkers across a spectrum of disciplines in the humanities. The essays gathered here do not hazard a univocal reply to that question; rather they offer a rich, wide-ranging critique of Benjamin's position that refracts and reflects contemporary thinking about the ethical, political, and aesthetic implications of life in the digital age.Trade Review"Mapping Benjamin not only distinguishes itself in format, scope, and tone from the mass of Benjamin books published each year, it provides an up-to-date snapshot of the humanities. This lucidly written book uses Benjamin to chart the parameters of a force field of contemporary intellectual efforts, across disciplines and other divides." -Eva Geulen,New York UniversityTable of ContentsContents BAECKER DIRK BOLZ NORBERT SIEGERT BERNHARD BARCK KARLHEINZ GILGEN PETER SHIFF RICHARD MOSER WALTER SCHMIDT SIEGFRIED J. HENNION ANTOINE LATOUR BRUNO LINK JURGEN CHARTIER ROGER LINK-HEER URSULA WATERS LINDSAY ZUMTHOR PAUL ASSMANN ALEIDA ASSMANN JAN HULLOT-KENTOR ROBERT BEHNKE KERSTIN WEIMAR KLAUS RITTER HENNING WENZEL HORST LEWIS PERICLES WERBER NIELS DE CASTRO ROCHA JOAO CEZAR NICHOLS STEPHEN G. NEVILLE BRIAN READINGS BILL FEINSTEIN JOSHUA MENOCAL MARIA ROSA SARLO BEATRIZ HARRISON ROBERT P. BANN STEPHEN

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Book SynopsisThis book weaves together Reiner Schürmann’s work on art and politics, drawing on a range of the most important thinkers and poets of the twentieth century and beyond.The Place of the Symbolic gathers Reiner Schürmann’s essays on the nexus of art and politics. In keeping with his translation of the destruction of metaphysics into an an-archic philosophy of practice, Schürmann develops a radical theory of the place of symbols, irreducible either to idealist theories of symbols or structuralist accounts of the symbolic. Symbols, Schürmann argues, may provide a bridge between ontological difference and politics. They resist being grasped metaphysically, in terms of representation. Instead, their understanding requires a specific way of existence: attending to the coming-to-presence of phenomena. As such, the understanding of symbols discloses a form of praxis that abandons ultimate grounds and opens onto the manifold. Alongside Schürmann’s theory of symbols, the collection includes essays on the relation between metaphysics, tragedy, and technology; on the “there is” in poetry; as well as on judgment. Throughout these characteristically lucid interventions, Schürmann’s most urgent concern remains a consideration of singular and finite practices that enact a release from universal principles. Art and politics appear here as the unworking of ultimate grounds; that is, as practices attuned to a truly groundless form of life.

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Book SynopsisFailures to listen or mishearings can be a matter of life and death. Shattering Biopolitics elaborates the intimate and complex relation between life and sound in philosophy, political theory, and sound-art.Table of ContentsList of Abbreviations | ix Prologue | 1 1 Shatter | 7 Excursus 1: Calculation and Stricture in Mendi + Keith Obadike’s Numbers Station | 38 2 The Rhythm of Life | 49 Excursus 2: Lawrence Abu Hamdan’s Phonetic Border-Crossings | 91 3 Mouth(piece) | 100 Excursus 3: Sharon Hayes’s Addresses | 145 4 A Use of Ears | 158 Excursus 4: The Drive to Listen in Ultra-red’s Militant Sound Investigations | 191 Acknowledgments | 207 Notes | 209 Selected Bibliography | 233 Index | 243

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Book SynopsisObject Lessons is a series of short, beautifully designed books about the hidden lives of ordinary things. What is silence? In a series of short meditations, novelist and playwright John Biguenet considers silence as a servant of power, as a lie, as a punishment, as the voice of God, as a terrorist’s final weapon, as a luxury good, as the reason for torture—in short, as an object we both do and do not recognize. Concluding with the prospects for its future in a world burgeoning with noise, Biguenet asks whether we should desire or fear silence—or if it is even ours to choose. Object Lessons is published in partnership with an essay series in The Atlantic.Trade ReviewWhen I realized I was making notes on memorable passages in Silence several times a page, I knew I’d found the book I’ve been needing to read. John Biguenet’s extended meditation on silence is provocative, witty, moving, and truly golden. * Valerie Martin, Orange Prize-winning novelist and author, most recently, of The Ghost of the Mary Celeste *One virtue of silence is that it enables us to contemplate a work like John Biguenet’s ever-fascinating new book. One virtue of his book—one of many—is that it does not go overboard in treating silence as a virtue. * Garret Keizer, author of The Unwanted Sound of Everything We Want *Taking us from the ancient world to Houston's Rothko Chapel to outer space, John Biguenet gives us a surprisingly boisterous tour of silence, stillness, and calm. Biguenet takes a space that looks at first glance like it is empty, as if it were, actually, defined by its emptiness, and he fills it with his erudition, his wisdom, his warmth, and his wit. We are lucky to spend this time rapt at his feet, to take all of this in. * Jessa Crispin, editor-in-chief Booklust and author of The Dead Ladies Project *What makes [Silence] stand out is the way this silence retreats, fails to materialize as such. The book unfolds as a failed or botched detective story: the search for silence, for a state that defies the human. Written in the form of a memoir or notes to and from one self to others… [Silence] ends as [Biguenet] leafs through a National Geographic, reads an article on noise pollution at sea and its catastrophic effects on the social life of whales. ‘What is the future of silence,’ he asks? ‘More lonely whales,’ he fears. It’s enough to make you never want to speak again. -- Julian Yates * Los Angeles Review of Books *Biguenet examines how we define silence, how we seek silence, how we sell silence, and how silence relates to things such as reading, the stage, secrets, and even dolls. He talks about how true silence is virtually unachievable in the modern world and how people become disoriented in pure silence. ... At the end of Silence, Biguenet contemplates the future. As he writes amidst noise and commotion, the "hum" of the modern world as he describes it, he read a National Geographic article about whales and how passing ships disrupt their ability to communicate with one another. Their ‘silence’ is broken. Thus, we are left to consider how silence or lack thereof impacts not only us but the entire ecosystem around us. It's a poignant reminder that in the modern world, with its hectic pace and ever present noise, sometimes what we most need is the one thing we can't seem to get. * Frank Valish, Under the Radar *Object Lessons’ describes themselves as ‘short, beautiful books,’ and to that, I'll say, amen. … [I]t is in this simplicity that we find insight and even beauty. … Silence by John Biguenet … explores whether it's possible — or indeed if we would want — to experience true ‘silence.’ … If you read enough ‘Object Lessons’ books, you'll fill your head with plenty of trivia to amaze and annoy your friends and loved ones — caution recommended on pontificating on the objects surrounding you. More importantly, though, in the tradition of McPhee's Oranges, they inspire us to take a second look at parts of the everyday that we've taken for granted. These are not so much lessons about the objects themselves, but opportunities for self-reflection and storytelling. They remind us that we are surrounded by a wondrous world, as long as we care to look. * Chicago Tribune *Biguenet goes on to deal with our responses to tragedy, terror and crime, the relationship of children with toys and pets, Freud's views on the uncanny, gender roles in asking of questions and giving of advice … and many other facets as he shows how silence is an integral part of our lives, even in ways we could have never imagined. * Business Standard, India *We inevitably fall into a sense of wonder in the first pages of the book. * T24 *Table of ContentsI What Is Silence? II Selling Silence Seeking Silence Silence Versus Solitude Voluntary Silences III The Representation of Silence Silent Reading Silence on Stage The Unspeakable IV The Silenced Moment The Silence of Dolls Silencing Silence and Secrets V The Future of Silence

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Book SynopsisProviding a clear, systematic account of the evolution of Bellour's thought on the nature of cinematic representation, the impact of digital technology and the response of the spectator, this is an essential guide to the work of a major contemporary thinker.

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Book Synopsis''Life imitates Art far more than Art imitates Life''The two works brought together here, ''The Decay of Lying'' and ''The Critic as Artist'', are Oscar Wilde''s wittiest and most profound writings on aesthetics, in which he proposes that criticism is the highest form of creation and that lying, the telling of a beautiful untruth, is the ultimate aim of art.One of twenty new books in the bestselling Penguin Great Ideas series. This new selection showcases a diverse list of thinkers who have helped shape our world today, from anarchists to stoics, feminists to prophets, satirists to Zen Buddhists.

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Book SynopsisA teacher to Jacques Lacan, André Breton, and Albert Camus, Kojève defined art as the act of extracting the beautiful from objective reality. His poetic text, “The Concrete Paintings of Kandinsky,” endorses nonrepresentational art as uniquely manifesting beauty. Taking the paintings of his renowned uncle, Wassily Kandinsky, as his inspiration, Kojève suggests that in creating (rather than replicating) beauty, the paintings are themselves complete universes as concrete as the natural world. Kojève’s text considers the utility and necessity of beauty in life, and ultimately poses the involuted question: What is beauty? Including personal letters between Kandinsky and his nephew, this book further elaborates the unique relationship between artist and philosopher. An introduction by Boris Groys contextualizes Kojève’s life and writings.

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Book SynopsisAn unmissable essay from the Sunday Times bestselling author of Don't Touch My Hair and What White People Can Do Next 'A magnificent text' KATY HESSEL 'This is so sharp, and funny, and will be so generously liberating for so many - read it!' KATHERINE RUNDELL 'A must-read' PSYCHOLOGIES For too long, beauty has been entangled in the forces of patriarchy and capitalism: objectification, shame, control, competition and consumerism. We need to find a way to do beauty differently. This radical, deeply personal and empowering essay points to ways we can all embrace our unruly beauty and enjoy our magnificent, disobedient bodies. 'This call to joyful disobedience is proof that Dabiri is one of our most important thinkers and writers ... Fresh, new and important' IRISH TIMES 'Radical, incisive, thoughtful ... I can't recommend enough' VICKY SPRATTTrade ReviewThis is the book we have needed . . . her pièce de resistance, a clarion call for us to reconsider the entire contemporary concept of beauty . . . empowering -- Best New Books in October * Glamour *Wonderful. I love all Emma Dabiri's work, for its insistence on nuance, on praxis, on scholarship, on the necessity of human joy. This is so sharp, and funny, and will be so generously liberating for so many - read it! -- Katherine RundellA magnificent text -- Katy HesselA polemic that offers liberating solutions. This call to joyful disobedience is proof that Dabiri is one of our most important thinkers and writers. Throughout Disobedient Bodies, as in her previous books, Emma Dabiri displays her ability to convey complicated ideas in an accessible, elegant way ... Feminists have been examining beauty standards and the ways in which our bodies are policed for a long time now, but Emma Dabiri's new book still feels fresh, new and important * The Irish Times *A must-read . . . Dabiri writes with empowering enthusiasm on alternatives to the way we look at beauty, and encourages us to rebel against current beauty standards * Psychologies *A radical, incisive and thoughtful assessment of beauty - how we conceive of it under capitalism and how we ought to reframe our thinking about it and, by extension - ourselves. I can't recommend ordering a copy enough. Emma is a fantastic writer . . . she always helps me to find new ways of seeing, perhaps she can do that for you too -- Vicky Spratt * The i *Disobedient Bodies grapples with the complicated and messy history of beauty, and how our constantly evolving (yet always unattainable) standards are entrenched in oppressive systems that hold us back . . . Dabiri takes our understanding beyond the surface. It's an essay that calls for a radical reimagination and holistic reclamation of beauty * Dazed *Engagingly written and well researched . . . A powerful read * Independent *Powerful . . . Disobedient Bodies explores the way in which we spend effort and money rectifying our "flaws" . . . to encourage an alternative approach to beauty -- Best New Books to Read in October 2023 * The i *A very important book -- Carol MorleyPraise for What White People Can Do Next -- :Emma is once-in-a-generation clever -- Caitlin MoranGame-changing -- Jason Okundaye * British Vogue *Essential . . . accessible and yet so full of scholarship. Witty, insightful, a must-read -- Owen JonesImpactful . . . a manifesto for meaningful and lasting change. And trust us, once you've picked it up and started reading, you won't want to put it down * Cosmopolitan *Praise for Don't Touch My Hair -- :Groundbreaking . . . I would urge everyone to read it * Guardian *Groundbreaking . . . scintillating -- Bernardine Evaristo * TLS *Fascinating, educational, personal, humble and engaging. I urge you all to read it! -- Marian Keyes

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Book SynopsisIn Beyond the Sovereign Self Grant H. Kester continues the critique of aesthetic autonomy begun in The Sovereign Self, showing how socially engaged art provides an alternative aesthetic with greater possibilities for critical practice. Instead of grounding art in its distance from the social, Kester shows how socially engaged art, developed in conjunction with forms of social or political resistance, encourages the creative capacity required for collective political transformation. Among others, Kester analyzes the work of conceptual artist Adrian Piper, experimental practices associated with the escrache tradition in Argentina, and indigenous Canadian artists such as Nadia Myre and Michèle Taïna Audette, showing how socially engaged art catalyzes forms of resistance that operate beyond the institutional art world. From the Americas and Europe to Iran and South Africa, Kester presents a historical genealogy of recent engaged art practices rooted in a deep histTrade Review“In a superlative demonstration of a hypothesis in action, Grant H. Kester’s definitive study Beyond the Sovereign Self effectively melts down, then reimagines our stagnated concepts of aesthetic autonomy and avant-gardism in a dauntless bid to retheorize the increasingly entangled, if not indistinguishable, realms of twenty-first-century social activism and art.” -- Gregory Sholette, author of * The Art of Activism and the Activism of Art *“With characteristic thoroughness, Grant H. Kester articulates the radical potential in challenging the cherished notion of art’s autonomy. Centering dialogic and activist art practices, he insightfully argues that the social labor of cultural resistance necessarily operates in generative forms of collectivity and dissensus.” -- Jennifer A. González, coeditor of * Chicano and Chicana Art: A Critical Anthology *Table of ContentsIntroduction 1 I. Within and Beyond the Canon 1. The Incommensurablity of Socially Engaged Art 33 2. Escrache and Autonomy 54 II. From Object to Event 3. Dematerialization and Aesthetics in Real Time 85 4. The Aesthetic of Answerability 105 III. A Dialogical Aesthetic 5. Social Labor and Communicative Action 137 6. Our Pernicious Temporality 171 7. Being Human as Praxis 202 Conclusion. Beyond the White Wall 229 Notes 235 Works Cited 255 Index 271

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Book SynopsisEd Simon is editor of Belt Magazine and emeritus staff writer at The Millions. His writing has appeared in The New York Times, The Atlantic, The Paris Review Daily, The Public Domain Review, The Hedgehog Review, JSTOR Daily, McSweeney's, Jacobin, The New Republic, Religion Dispatches, Killing the Buddha, and The Washington Post, among dozens of others. He is the author of over a dozen books, including Pandemonium: A Visual History of Demonology.

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Book SynopsisHow games create beauty and meaning, and how we can use them to explore the aesthetics of thought.Are games art? This question is a dominant mode of thinking about games and play in the twenty-first century, but it is fundamentally the wrong question. Instead, Frank Lantz proposes in his provocative new book, The Beauty of Games, that we think about games and how they create meaning through the lens of the aesthetic. We should think of games, he writes, the same way we think about literature, theater, or music?as a form that ranges from deep and profound to easy and disposable, and everything in between. Games are the aesthetic form of interactive systems, a set of possibilities connected by rules of cause and effect.In this book, Lantz analyzes games from chess to poker to tennis to understand how games create beauty and evoke a deeper meaning. He suggests that we think of games not only as hyper-modern objects but also as forms within the ancient context of artistic production, encompassing all of the nebulous and ephemeral qualities of the aesthetic experience.

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Book SynopsisVery Short Introductions: Brilliant, Sharp, Inspiring Imagination: A Very Short Introduction explores imagination as a cognitive power and an essential dimension of human flourishing, demonstrating how imagination plays multiple roles in human cognition and shapes humanity in profound ways. Examining philosophical, evolutionary, and literary perspectives on imagination, the author shows how this facility, while potentially distorting, both frees us from immediate reality and enriches our sense of it, making possible our experience of a meaningful world. Long regarded by philosophers as an elusive and mysterious capacity of the human mind, imagination has been the subject of extraordinary ambivalence, described as both dangerous and divine, as merely peripheral to rationality and as essential to all thinking. Drawing on philosophy, aesthetics, literary and cognitive theory as well as the human sciences, this book engages the dramatic conceptual history of imagination together Table of ContentsAcknowledgements 1: What is imagination? 2: Imagination in human evolution 3: From divine madness to cognitive power 4: The productive and aesthetic imagination 5: The augmentation of reality 6: Creativity from invention to wonder References and further reading

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Book SynopsisIn this synthetic introduction to the history of the philosophy of art, Noël Carroll elucidates and analyzes selected writings on art by Plato, Aristotle, Hutcheson, Hume, Kant, Hegel, Schopenhauer, Tolstoy, and Bell. Carroll’s narrative tracks developments between major positions in philosophy of art, ranging from the idea that art is unavoidably embedded in society to the evolution of the notion that art is autonomous ("art for art’s sake"), thereby setting the stage for continuing debates in the philosophy of art.Presupposing no prior background, and useful on its own or accompanying the reading of primary works, Classics in Western Philosophy of Art is ideal as a text for introductory undergraduate and graduate courses in philosophy of art and aesthetics, or for anyone interested in learning about the origin of some of our most fundamental conceptions of art in the Western tradition.Trade Review"Indispensable turn-by-turn directions for those navigating the ideas of nine philosophers who set the stage for thinking about art and society. Clear and comprehensive, Noël Carroll is the perfect guide to the history of aesthetics."—Dominic McIver Lopes, University of British Columbia"Carroll’s Classics in Western Philosophy of Art is a masterful series of commentaries on nine classical writings on art by philosophers in the Western tradition—learned and penetrating in exegesis, equally penetrating in critique. It’s not just one philosopher after another. Carroll takes note of what later writers say, explicitly or implicitly, about earlier writers, and imagines what those earlier writers might have said in response. He is host to a conversation. How I wish these commentaries had been available when I was still teaching philosophy of art! I would have been spared my own exegetical labors over these often-difficult texts, and my teaching would have been immeasurably improved."—Nicholas Wolterstorff, Noah Porter Professor Emeritus of Philosophical Theology, Yale University

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Book SynopsisLearning to Look is a wandering journey through the nature of art - and the ways it can transform us, if we let it. Author of Infinite Baseball, Alva Noë, presents a collection of short, stimulating essays that explore how we experience art and what it means to be an observer. Experiencing art - letting it do its work on us - takes thought, attention, and focus. It requires creation, even from the beholder. And it is in this process of confrontation and reorganization that artworks can lead us to remake ourselves. Ranging far and wide, from Pina Bausch to Robocop, from Bob Dylan to Vermeer, Noë uses encounters with specific artworks to gain entry into a world of fascinating issues - like how philosophy and science are represented in film; what evolutionary biology says about art; or the role of relics, fakes, and copies in our experience of a work. The essays in Learning to Look are short, accessible, and personal. Each one arises out of an art encounter - in a museum, listening to records, or going to a concert. Each essay stands on its own, but taken together, they form an intimate picture of our relationship with art. Carefully articulating the experience of each of these encounters, Noë proposes that, like philosophy, art is a sort of technology for understanding ourselves. Put simply, art is an opportunity for us to enact ourselves anew.Table of ContentsPreface Encounters 1 Soup is an anagram of opus 2 I am sitting in a room 3 40 speakers in a room 4 Two left hands 5 Rock art 6 The power of performance 7 Cheap thrills at the Whitney 8 Whaling with Turner 9 Take my breath away 10 Speak, draw, dance 11 Beach beasts on the move 11 Making the work work 13 Irrational man 14 RoboCop's philosophers 15 Pointing the way to liberation, in Star Trek: Voyager 16 An Awkward Synthesis Pictures 17 The anatomy lesson 18 The importance of being dressed 19 The art of the brain 20 Faces and masks 21 The philosophical eye 22 The camera and the dance 23 Why are 3-D movies so bad? 24 The myth of 3-D immersion 25 Storying telling and the

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Book SynopsisThe notion of the human' is in need of urgent redefinition. At a time of radical bio-technological developments, and in light of the political and environmental imperatives of our age, the term posthuman' provides an alternative. The philosophical landscape which has developed as a response to the crisis of the human, includes several movements, such as: Posthumanism, Transhumanism, Antihumanism and Object Oriented Ontology. This book explains the similarities and differences between these currents and offers a detailed examination of a number of topics that fall under the posthuman umbrella, including the anthropocene, artificial intelligence and the deconstruction of the human. Francesca Ferrando affords particular focus to Philosophical Posthumanism, defined as a philosophy of mediation which addresses the meaning of humanity not in separation, but in relation to technology and ecology. The posthuman shift thus emerges in the global call for social change, responsTrade ReviewFerrando skillfully disentangles the umbrella term “posthumanism” and offers original thought experiments concerning a posthuman future ... As such, Philosophical Posthumanism is well-suited to audiences who are new to posthuman theory, but it also provides original critical material that will interest readers familiar with the field of posthumanism. * A Review of International English Literature *A generous and creative work ... the most distinguishing feature of Philosophical Posthumanism is its author’s vision towards a better future. * Journal for the Study of Religion, Nature and Culture *Philosophical Posthumanism is exemplary in its lucid survey of the major thinkers, theories and concepts … The navigational questions make this book especially useful for those teaching introductory courses on posthumanist theory, or for anyone looking for an accessible and comprehensive introduction to the field. * Symposium *Ferrando has written a philosophically original inquiry that addresses the formidable questions our time has given rise to that may rekindle hope in the power of critical thinking—that thinking gets somewhere—even in transcending itself, in all but the most despairing. * Philosophy in Review *[An] exceptional and exemplary primer on the subject … [One] cannot overestimate the importance of Ferrando’s timely intervention … The book is an essential reading for all who are interested in a lucid understanding of this new horizon of philosophical theory and praxis of our times. And it is perfect as a textbook on the subject for college or university students. * Sophia *An erudite and important contribution to the growing field of Posthumanist literature ... An exciting, inspiring and at times dizzying book that successfully identifies the urgency of posthumanist thought in a world increasingly beleaguered by legacies of Western humanist practices. * Theory, Culture & Society *[A] pioneering work in the rather young intellectual tradition of Posthumanism … Ferrando’s book has its biggest merit in bringing together a very thoughtful historical analysis of the intellectual roots of posthumanism and at the same time using these considerations within the performance of posthuman theory as nondualist and non-anthropocentric celebration of life in all its diversity. The author meets highest academic standards in presenting the diverse theories involved within this movement of thought and adds a very accessible and engaging text to the canon of philosophical literature. * AI & Society *With an impressive ability to combine a recognition of the current state of scholarship, a synoptic vision of the field, and an enthusiasm for research and discovery, Ferrando portrays the posthuman in its heterogeneity and philosophical posthumanism in its multifaceted theoretical endeavors. Furthermore, she does this with the rigor and skill of a distinguished scholar, the explanatory ability of an expert teacher, the enthusiasm and pathos of a narrator, and the inspiration of a prophetic "realistic" announcer. * Interconnections: Journal of Posthumanism *Contains a series of original reflections which will not fail to stimulate robust discussion ... [Ferrando] builds an ontology of the posthuman that embraces the whole of reality, extending posthumanism’s scope to the entire universe, and indeed, to all possible universes. * Philosophy Now *Engages in a passionate way with the history of posthuman thinking, its future visions and various schools of thought nourished by a critical stance toward classical humanism ... [Ferrando] meets highest academic standards in presenting her arguments and adds a very accessible and engaging text to the canon of philosophical literature. * Popular Inquiry *A wholly exciting, easy to follow, and useful reference. * Il Capitale Culturale *Francesca Ferrando's Philosophical Posthumanism is the best book on transhumanism that I have read so far. I believe that it is a must-read for transhumanists and non-transhumanists alike. * Singularity *Thought-provoking and meaningful. * VTU Review: Studies in the Humanities and Social Sciences *In this stunning book Francesca Ferrando paints a clear and inspirational picture of the future of humankind. Her book is both thorough and exciting. It is a delight to see that she does not simply toe the line and follow 'official' thinking, but quite rightly the philosophy of Nietzsche and Lamarck gets an airing. If you want to know what Posthumanism is all about and peek into our future world, then dive into the book and wallow in its pages. * Kevin Warwick, Emeritus Professor, Coventry University and Reading University, UK *Francesca Ferrando book will be of great value to those who wish to understand the range of non-anthropocentric approaches to philosophy and politics. In Philosophical Posthumanism, they will find an account of the theoretical foundations and practice of posthumanism that is impressively scholarly, ethically engaged and engaging. * David Roden, Associate Lecturer in Philosophy, The Open University, UK *The emergence of posthuman thinking is a paradigm shifting event. Categorical dualities get twisted. Francesca Ferrando is at the forefront of thinking philosophically about the great variety of correlated developments. * Stefan Lorenz Sorgner, Associate Professor of Philosophy, John Cabot University Rome, Italy *A remarkable text ... The intensity and depth with which Francesca Ferrando addresses complex posthumanist theories, while manifesting her own conceptualization of posthumanism, united with clarity and precision, makes this a text that can be approached by both experts and laymen in the field. * Isegoría, Revista de Filosofía moral y política *Ferrando presents her brand of posthumanist thought with an intense academic vigor, consistent systematicity, and a genuine commitment. * KULT Online *What makes Philosophical Posthumanism a generous and creative work is Francesca Ferrando’s ‘appreciation of the paradoxical structure of the posthuman condition itself’ ... the most distinguishing feature of [the book] is its author’s vision towards a better future. * Journal for the Study of Religion, Nature and Culture *Table of ContentsForeword: The Posthuman As Exuberant Excess by Rosi Braidotti Introduction: From Humans to Posthumans 1. Part 1 What is Philosophical Posthumanism? 1. Premises 2. From Postmodern to Posthuman 3. Posthumanism and Its Others 4. The Birth of Transhumanism 5. Contemporary Transhumanism(s) 6 The Roots of Transhumanism 7 Transhumanism and Techno-Enchantment 8. Posthumanist Technologies as Ways of Revealing 9. Antihumanism and the Übermensch 10. Philosophical Posthumanism Interlude 1 Part 2 Of Which “Human” is the Posthuman a “Post”? 11. The Power of the Hyphen 12. Humanizing 13. The Anthropological Machine 14. Almost, Human 15. Technologies of the Self as Posthumanist (Re)Sources 16. The Epiphany of Becoming Human 17. Where does the word “human” come from? 18. Mammals or Homo sapiens? Interlude 2 Part 3 Have We Always Been Posthuman? 19. Post-Anthropocentrism in the Anthropocene 20. Posthuman Life a. Bios and Zoe b. Animate / Inanimate 21. Artificial Life 22. Evolving Species 23. Posthumanities 24. Posthuman Bioethics 25. Human Enhancement 26. Cognitive Autopoiesis 27. Posthumanist Perspectivism 28. From New Materialisms to Object Oriented Ontology 29. Philosophical Posthumanist Ontology 30. The Multiverse a. The Multiverse in Science b. The Multiverse in Philosophy c. A Thought Experiment: The Posthuman Multiverse Concluding Celebration Bibliography Acknowledgements

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Book SynopsisExplores abstraction as a keyword in aesthetic modernism and in critical thinking since Marx

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