Reign of Appearances
The Misery and Splendor of the Public Sphere

The public sphere can undermine liberal democracy, law, and morality. But it also liberates us from the bondages of private life and fosters a vital aesthetic experience.

Ari Adut (Author)

9781316632383, Cambridge University Press

Paperback / softback, published 7 September 2023

220 pages
27 x 18 x 1.5 cm, 0.379 kg

Advance praise: 'An original, provocative, sustained, and sophisticated theoretical-cum-empirical work on a vital topic. Written with panache and style, and filled with deft scholarly references from the history of philosophy, the visual arts, and literature, the book is a great pleasure to read.' Jeffrey Alexander, Lillian Chavenson Saden Professor of Sociology, Yale University, Connecticut

The public sphere is the realm of appearances - not citizenship. Its central event is spectacle - not dialogue. Marked by an asymmetry between the few who act and the many who watch, and subjecting all its contents to visibility, the public sphere can undermine liberal democracy, law, and morality. But the public sphere also liberates us from the burdens and bondages of private life and fosters an existentially vital aesthetic experience. Reign of Appearances uses a great variety of cases to reveal the logic of the public sphere, including homosexuality in Victorian England; the 2008 crash; antisemitism in Europe; confidence in American presidents; communications in social media; special prosecutor investigations; the visibility of African-Americans; violence during the French Revolution; the Islamic veil; contemporary sexual politics; public executions; and pricing in art. This unconventional account of the public sphere is critical reading for anyone who wants to understand the effects of visibility in urban life, politics, and the media.

1. A critique
2. A realistic perspective
3. Publicity
4. Politics in public
5. Content regulation
6. Visibility in society
7. Law and morality in the public sphere
8. A defense of spectatorship
References
Index.

Subject Areas: Politics & government [JP], Sociology [JHB], History of ideas [JFCX], Social & political philosophy [HPS]