Aesthetic Life and Why It Matters

As the sunset swings into view, you think, "That's beautiful." 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 for your friends. The novel is wonderful, the movie disappoints, the dress looked better in the store. Aesthetic Life and Why It Matters offers three new answers to Socrates's great question about how we should live that focus on the place of aesthetic engagement in well-being. Three philosophers offer their perspectives on how aesthetic commitments move us through the world and shape our well-being, our sense of self, and our connections to others. Aesthetic engagement is a site for achievement, it cultivates individuality within a context of community, and it satisfies a hunger for exploring our differences. A closing dialogue between the authors probes some flash points in thinking about value: disagreement, subjectivism, ethnocentrism, fads and fashions, and ideology critique. Written in appealing prose, with vivid examples, a comprehensive introduction, and suggestions for further reading, the book is designed as a self-contained module in aesthetics for introductory courses in philosophy.

Dominic McIver Lopes FRSC is University Killam Professor at the University of British Columbia and has written on a wide variety of topics in aesthetics, including the meaning and value of images, new technologies in the arts, and theories of art and aesthetic value. He is now writing a book on aesthetic injustice. Bence Nanay is Professor of Philosophy and BOF Research Professor at the University of Antwerp and the Director of European Network for Sensory Research. He is the author of Between Perception and Action (2013), Aesthetics as Philosophy of Perception (2016) and Aesthetics: A Very Short Introduction (2019), all with Oxford University Press as well as six forthcoming books. His main focus of work these days is a project on global aesthetics. Nick Riggle is Associate Professor of Philosophy at the University of San Diego. He is the author of On Being Awesome: A Unified Theory of How Not to Suck (2017), as well as several articles on aesthetic value and why it matters. His most recent book is This Beauty: A Philosophy of Being Alive (2022).