Richard Marc Shusterman

This article (originally published in the English version of my book Body Consciousness) critically examines the value of Simone de Beauvoir’s philosophy for the project of somaesthetics. In contrast to most philosophers who view embodied experience as a universal given that is essentially the same for all human subjects, Beauvoir highlights how somatic subjectivities distinctively differ through different subject positions determined by the subject’s social roles and status. Her detailed exploration of the somatic subjectivities of women and the elderly (which are shaped by forms of social subjugation) constitutes the focus of my study. I show how Beauvoir fails to recognize the extent to which somatic training can address some of the problems of subjugated somatic subjectivities and can thus help contribute to wider sodcial efforts for greater freedom.

Il semble évident que la philosophie de l’art développée par Danto s’oppose en tout point à l’esthétique pragmatiste. Non pas que Danto ait été un commentateur critique de Peirce ou de Dewey, auxquels il se réfère finalement fort peu. Mais le renouveau pragmatiste de l’esthétique, quand il remet au premier plan la notion d’expérience esthétique ou quand il cherche à restaurer la continuité entre l’art et la vie, s’est quant à lui en bonne partie explicitement construit contre l’œuvre de Danto. Sans nier ces différences essentielles, Richard Shusterman revient toutefois ici sur sa dette, à la fois personnelle et théorique, à l’égard de Danto.

Philosophy is typically identified with the textual practices of reading and writing and oral dialogue. It has also claimed to be an entire way of life, an art of living dedicated to the pursuit of wisdom and thus to the practices that such pursuit should entail. This chapter probes to what extent philosophy as a practice or art of living requires a literary or more generally textual form. It also considers why it should not confine itself to the limits of discourse. It argues that if philosophy requires more than words, there is a twofold challenge for philosophy as a way of life. It is not enough to compose texts and refine our language with logical and literary skill; we must also take real pains, in practicing philosophy, to give careful composition to our character, behavior, and bearing, and to refine them through harmonizing grace and attractive style.

Cet article éclaire par leur analyse différentes conceptions de l’expérience esthétique qui ont joué un rôle significatif dans la philosophie de l’art et de l’esthétique. Cette analyse approfondit mon étude antérieure des caractéristiques hédoniques, évaluatives, phénoménologiques, sémantiques et définitionnelles du modèle traditionnellement dominant de l’expérience esthétique et s’élargit à des critères pertinents supplémentaires pour évaluer les différentes fonctions et valeurs de l’expérience esthétique. Ce cadre analytique plus large nous permet de considérer une forme importante d’expérience – l’expérience sexuelle – que les philosophes excluent habituellement de l’expérience esthétique. En examinant d’un œil critique les raisons qui motivent une telle exclusion (le plus souvent, elles ne sont pas explicitement formulées dans les arguments), l’article suggère comment l’expérience sexuelle (ou ce que je préfère appeler l’expérience érotique) peut être utilement décrite et valorisée comme esthétique.

This Critical Reader provides a new perspective on the work of France's foremost social theorist Pierre Bourdieu, by examining its philosophical import and promoting a fruitful dialogue between Bourdieu and philosophers in the English-speaking world. The contributors include leading philosophers who critically assess Bourdieu's philosophical theories and their significance from diverse philosophical perspectives to reveal which dimensions of his thought are the most useful for philosophy today. These discussions also raise important questions about the current institutional limits of philosophy and how those limits may be overcome through a more robust alliance with the social sciences and the practical social world. The contributions cover Bourdieu's use of central figures in the Anglo-American philosophical tradition; his relationship to analytical philosophy and pragmatism through his concept of habitus; his position in twentieth-century continental philosophy; the political dimension of his work; the function and limits of his notion of "the field"; and the relation of his explanatory models to new directions in the philosophy of science. The book also discusses some of his most recent writing not yet translated into English, and it concludes with a chapter by Bourdieu in which he analyses the diverse structural problems and the transformations involved in importing intellectual ideas from one national field to another. The volume also offers a specially prepared comprehensive bibliography of Bourdieu's publications in French and English from 1958 to 1998.