Thinking through the Body
Essays in Somaesthetics

A richly rewarding vision of the burgeoning interdisciplinary field of somaesthetics, with fourteen essays by the originator of the field.

Richard Shusterman (Author)

9781107698505, Cambridge University Press

Paperback / softback, published 17 September 2012

384 pages
22.6 x 15.2 x 2.5 cm, 0.52 kg

'This essay collection by Richard Shustermann, the 'originator of the field' of somaesthetics (back cover) is wide-ranging. Not only is somaesthetics itself a fully interdisciplinary academic field, Shustermann also adds a practical dimension and emphasizes its interculturalism in the comparison of eastern and western thinking about body and mind.' Hans J. Rindisbacher, The European Legacy

This book provides a richly rewarding vision of the burgeoning interdisciplinary field of somaesthetics. Composed of fourteen wide-ranging but finely integrated essays by Richard Shusterman, the originator of the field, Thinking through the Body explains the philosophical foundations of somaesthetics and applies its insights to central issues in ethics, education, cultural politics, consciousness studies, sexuality and the arts. Integrating Western philosophy, cognitive science and somatic methodologies with classical Asian theories of body, mind and action, these essays probe the nature of somatic existence and the role of body consciousness in knowledge, memory and behavior. Deploying somaesthetic perspectives to analyze key aesthetic concepts (such as style and the sublime), he offers detailed studies of embodiment in drama, dance, architecture and photography. The volume also includes somaesthetic exercises for the classroom and explores the ars erotica as an art of living.

Introduction
Part I. Somatic Being, Knowing, and Teaching: 1. Thinking through the body: educating for the humanities
2. The body as background
3. Self-knoweldge and its discontents: from Socrates to somaesthetics
4. Muscle memory and the somaesthetic pathologies of everyday life
5. Somaesthetics in the philosophy classroom: a practical approach
Part II. Somaesthetics, Aesthetics, and Culture: 6. Somaesthetics and the limits of aesthetics
7. Somaesthetics and Burke's sublime
8. Pragmatism and cultural politics: from textualism to somaesthetics
9. Body consciousness and performance
Part III. The Arts and the Art of Living: 10. Somaesthetics and architecture: a critical option
11. Photography as performative process
12. Asian ars erotica and the question of sexual aesthetics
13. Philosophy as awakened life: everyday aesthetics of embodiment in American transcendentalism and Japanese zen practice
14. Somatic style.

Subject Areas: Mind, Body, Spirit: thought & practice [VXA], Cognition & cognitive psychology [JMR], Popular philosophy [HPX], Philosophy: aesthetics [HPN], Philosophy [HP]