Richard Shusterman's Somaesthetics

Against the background of selected themes in contemporary philosophy, this book argues that Richard Shusterman's somaesthetics is not only an aesthetics but, first of all, it is a philosophy. The book schematically outlines the philosophical background of pragmatism and of Shusterman's views, which are both popular and relevant to contemporary humanist thought. Linking Shusterman’s biography with themes from his work, Kremer suggests that Richard Shusterman is first and foremost a philosopher, not merely an aesthete. With origins in pragmatism, the somaesthetics presented by Shusterman lays the groundwork for everyday aesthetics as a new field of pragmatist aesthetics. Alexander Kremer demonstrates that this somaesthetics--the critical meliorative study of the experience and use of one’s body as a locus of sensory-aesthetic appreciation (aesthesis) and creative self-fashioning--has a serious philosophical background and is not confined to aesthetics. Kremer specifically explores the relation between Shusterman's somaesthetics and everyday aesthetics, a general theory of understanding and Shusterman's theory of interpretation, and the meaning of life. Philosophy always tries to understand and interpret the world and man in it by means of the most general concepts. This book takes the reader on a philosophical adventure, exploring the philosophical background of the field of beauty and of the fine arts.