Aesthetic Injustice

Aesthetic Injustice
Author: Dominic McIver Lopes
Publisher: Oxford University Press
Total Pages: 209
Release: 2024-08-06
Genre: Philosophy
ISBN: 019893100X

Contrast the glittering palette used to decorate rickshaws on the streets of Mumbai, the phlegmatic angst of Nordic noir, the taut ovoids of Kwakwaka'wakw carving, or the kawaii invasion of parts of Tokyo. The diversity of the aesthetic ecosystem enriches our lives. In Aesthetic Injustice, Dominic McIver Lopes draws on his earlier books, Beyond Art and Being for Beauty^—^as well as the rich tradition of cultural cosmopolitanism^—^to argue that we have interests in there being diverse conceptions of aesthetic value, each one at the centre of a thriving, self-directed aesthetic culture. These interests should govern how, from the perspective of our own aesthetic cultures, we interact with others' aesthetic cultures. Lopes articulates an entirely new theory of aesthetic injustice: the consequence of neglecting our own interests. This theory sheds light on cultural appropriation, gendered and racialized ideals of bodily beauty, the allocation of resources to the aesthetic pursuits of disabled people, and state support for the aesthetic cultures of minority groups. In its combination of theoretical innovation with detailed treatment of contemporary issues, Aesthetic Injustice forges important connections between aesthetics, political philosophy, and research on social justice.

The Question of the Aesthetic

The Question of the Aesthetic
Author: George Levine
Publisher: Oxford University Press
Total Pages: 297
Release: 2022-07-14
Genre: Aesthetics
ISBN: 0192844857

This book establishes an argument for deeper attention to the aesthetic qualities of literature, to the question of the relation between the aesthetic and more immediate, practical, and urgent social and political matters. It attempts to establish the intrinsic value of the aesthetic at the same time as it demonstrates that focus on the aesthetic does not preclude attention of the urgent questions with which works of art consistently engaged. It argues that attention to the aesthetic does not diminish attention to these larger issues, but in effect increases the power both of art and criticism to engage them fruitfully.

Kinetic Beauty

Kinetic Beauty
Author: Jason Holt
Publisher: Routledge
Total Pages: 172
Release: 2019-11-01
Genre: Philosophy
ISBN: 1000758877

Sport aesthetics is an important but often marginalized field in the philosophy of sport. Kinetic Beauty offers a comprehensive, principled, pluralist introduction to the philosophical aesthetics of sport. The book tackles a wide variety of issues in the philosophical aesthetics of sport, proposing a five-level analysis that coordinates extant scholarship on the same conceptual map, reveals gaps in the literature, and motivates a fresh perspective on stubborn debates and novel topics in the field (for example, the aesthetic experience of athletes, aesthetic biases in sport, the paradox of sport fiction, and whether dance can be sport). This is an excellent resource for professors and students in the philosophy of sport, sport aesthetics, general aesthetics, and the philosophy of art. It is also a fascinating read for those working in kinesiology, sport studies, philosophy, art, and aesthetics.

The Geography of Taste

The Geography of Taste
Author: Dominic McIver Lopes
Publisher: Oxford University Press
Total Pages: 217
Release: 2024
Genre: Art
ISBN: 0197509061

"Aesthetic preferences and practices vary widely between individuals and between cultures. How should aesthetics proceed if we take this fact of aesthetic diversity, rather than the presumption of aesthetic universality, as our starting point? How should we theorize the cultural origins and cultural basis of aesthetic diversity? How should we think about the value and normativity of aesthetic diversity? In an effort to model what the turn toward diversity might look like in aesthetic inquiry, each author defends a different account of aesthetic diversity, and they engage in a collective dialogue about these issues"--

Being for Beauty

Being for Beauty
Author: Dominic McIver Lopes
Publisher: Oxford University Press
Total Pages: 283
Release: 2018-09-13
Genre: Philosophy
ISBN: 0192562118

No values figure as pervasively and intimately in our lives as beauty and other aesthetic values. They animate the arts, as well as design, fashion, food, and entertainment. They orient us upon the natural world. And we even find them in the deepest insights of science and mathematics. For centuries, however, philosophers and other thinkers have identified beauty with what brings pleasure. Concerned that aesthetic hedonism has led us to question beauty's significance, Dominic McIver Lopes offers an entirely new theory of beauty in this volume. Beauty engages us in action, in concert with others, in the context of social networks. Lopes's 'network theory' explains the social dimension of aesthetic agency, the tie between beauty and pleasure, the importance of disagreement in matters of taste, and the reality of aesthetic values as denizens of the natural world. The two closing chapters shed light on why aesthetic engagement is so important to quality of life, and why it deserves (and gets) lavish public support. Being for Beauty offers a fresh contribution to aesthetics but also to thinking about metanormativity, the metaphysics of value, and virtue theory.

Carnalities

Carnalities
Author: Mariana Ortega
Publisher: Duke University Press
Total Pages: 215
Release: 2024-11-08
Genre: Social Science
ISBN: 1478060247

In Carnalities, Mariana Ortega presents a phenomenological study of aesthetics grounded in the work of primarily Latinx artists. She introduces the idea of carnal aesthetics informed by carnalities, creative practices shaped by the self’s affective attunement to the material, cultural, historical, communal, and spiritual. For Ortega, carnal aesthetics offers a way to think about the affective and bodily experiences of racialized selves. Drawing on Gloria Anzaldúa, Chela Sandoval, José Esteban Muñoz, Alia Al-Saji, Helen Ngo, Maurice Merleau-Ponty, Roland Barthes, and others, Ortega examines photographic works on Latinx subjects. She analyzes the photography of Laura Aguilar, Verónica Gabriela Cárdenas, and Susan Meiselas, among others, theorizing photography as a carnal, affective medium that is crucial for processes of self-formation, resistance, and mourning in Latinx life. She ends with an intimate reading of photography through a reflection of her own crossing from Nicaragua to the United States in 1979. Motivated by her experience of loss and exile, Ortega argues for the importance of carnal aesthetics in destabilizing and transforming normative, colonial, and decolonial subjects, imaginaries, and structures.

Social Justice Art

Social Justice Art
Author: Marit Dewhurst
Publisher: Harvard Education Press
Total Pages: 211
Release: 2014-11-01
Genre: Education
ISBN: 1612507387

In this lively and groundbreaking book, arts educator Marit Dewhurst examines why art is an effective way to engage students in thinking about the role they might play in addressing social injustice. Based on interviews and observations of sixteen high schoolers participating in an activist arts class at a New York City museum, Dewhurst identifies three learning processes common to the act of creating art that have an impact on social justice: connecting, questioning, and translating. Noting that “one of the challenges of social justice art education has been the difficulty of naming effective strategies that can be used across multiple contexts,” Dewhurst outlines core strategies for an “activist arts pedagogy” and offers concrete suggestions for educators seeking to incorporate activist art projects inside or outside formal school settings. Social Justice Art seeks to give common language to educators and others who are looking to expand and refine their practices in an emerging field, whether they work in art education, social justice programming, or youth development.

Aesthetic Life and Why It Matters

Aesthetic Life and Why It Matters
Author: Dominic Lopes
Publisher: Oxford University Press
Total Pages: 129
Release: 2022
Genre: Philosophy
ISBN: 0197625797

"You have a complex and detailed aesthetic life. You make aesthetic decisions every day. You wake up, shower, and dress. When you decide what to wear, you think about how it feels and fits, how it expresses your style. You wander into the kitchen and think about what to eat. When you decide what to eat, you think about flavor, texture, smell. You head out into the world. You see your car, your bike, your shoes and appreciate how they look. When you decide what to buy, you think about how it will look in your house, or how it sounds or feels. You make aesthetic decisions every day-about what to listen to, what to watch, whether to arrange things just so, about how to sit, strut, or sing. You have aesthetic feelings and reactions every day. The sunset swings into view as you turn a corner and you think, "That's beautiful." A wave of calm and pleasure wash over you. You take a bite of cake and you think, "Wow, that's sweet." Maybe too sweet. You hear that new song and it blows you away. You play it on repeat and for your friends. You try the new restaurant and you think: "It's bland, boring, awesome, exciting, brilliant, bold." The novel is wonderful, the film disappoints, the dress looked better in the store. You have aesthetic feelings and reactions every day and these reactions move you through the world and shape your sense of self and well-being. You create aesthetic looks, atmospheres, and objects every day. When you dress you create an outfit that you put into the world. When you have friends over you play music, light a candle, arrange the dinner table, set a mood. You exercise aesthetic creativity when you design your tattoo, put on makeup, pierce your ear or nose, spritz cologne or perfume, or pay close attention to your hair. Almost everything you do has an aesthetic dimension-from the way you make your bed, prepare your coffee, and tie your shoes, to the way you speak to others and adjust photos to post on social media. You create aesthetic value every day. You have a complex and detailed aesthetic life that you orchestrate every day through your aesthetic decisions, reactions, feelings, and actions"--

The Question of Literature

The Question of Literature
Author: Elizabeth Beaumont Bissell
Publisher: Manchester University Press
Total Pages: 258
Release: 2002
Genre: Literary Criticism
ISBN: 9780719057458

As literary theory has grown more influential, interdisciplinary and sophisticated, it has come to concern itself with a much greater range of issues and objects than those traditionally considered literary. It now addresses philosophy, history, psychology, politics and the media. Addressing a central and fundamental, but relatively neglected, issue in literary theory, this title seeks to recontextualise how theory has changed our understanding of literature and its questions by relating literature to the institution of the university, to ethical judgements and values, new media and computer technology and the nature of representative democracy.

Expertise

Expertise
Author: Mirko Farina
Publisher: Oxford University Press
Total Pages: 303
Release: 2024-09-06
Genre: Philosophy
ISBN: 0198877307

This is a collective study of philosophical questions to do with experts and expertise, such as: What is an expert? Who decides who the experts are? Should we always defer to experts? How should expertise inform public policy? What happens when the experts disagree? Must experts be unbiased? Does it matter what the source of the expertise is?