Pragmatist Aesthetics: Living Beauty, Rethinking Art by Richard Shusterman

Review by: Daniel O. Dahlstrom

The Review of Metaphysics, Vol. 48, No. 1 (Sep., 1994), pp. 166-168
Published by: Philosophy Education Society Inc.
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166

GIUSEPPE BUTERA AND STAFF

tion that one can see an object in one way at one time and then see that
same object in another way at another time, and the character
of the
of seeing an object as an object.
The "mirror-F" and the
experience
on
An interesting discussion
"duck-rabbit"
image serve as examples.
an
in
to
blindness"
follows
this
appendix
chapter.
"meaning
in chapter 6,
The discussion
of "seeing" and "seeing as" is continued
treats of K?hler's
which
influence on Wittgenstein
and Wittgenstein's
to K?hler's gestalt theory.
interest in and objections
This chapter con
cludes with an excursus
into Moore's
discussion
of the problems
of
sense perception
and Wittgenstein's
criticisms of Moore.
7
in
Chapter
volves a particularly
of Wittgenstein's
views
clear and useful discussion
on memory.
that memory
is the basis
Schulte begins with the premise
of knowledge
and of intellectual
and practical skills.
He reads Wittgen
to theories of memory
stein's remarks on memory
as, in part, responses
at length
and William
James.
Schulte discusses
put forth by Russell
criticisms
of "the idea of a memory
image, the notion of
Wittgenstein's
content of a memory,
and the thesis that a memory
the experiential
is
in certain feelings"
embedded
He
charac
also
discusses
three
(p. 97).
teristics of memory
of interest to Wittgenstein:
that a memory may have
to be dredged up or that itmay happen "in a flash," its immediacy,
and
the impossibility
of reference
failure (p. 112). Chapter 8 concerns Witt
interest inWilliam James's assertion
that emotion cannot be
genstein's
In chapter
disassociated
from bodily feelings.
9 Schulte
considers
as taken up in Wittgenstein's
This dis
Moore's paradox
manuscripts.
cussion concerns Frege's assertion
sign, the grammar of the word "be
of meaning.
In Schulte's view
lief and the question of the uniformity
to show the misunderstand
the discussion
ismeant
of Moore's paradox
as though a sentence may be given
arises when we proceed
ing which
sense outside of its use in a language game.
The final chapter raises
on the mind-body
the question
of Wittgenstein's
position
problem.
or a men
cannot be called a behaviorist
Schulte states that Wittgenstein
talist, and that he really does not take a stand on the traditional mind
Schulte concludes with the reminder that "for Wittgen
body question.
of the questions
that have arisen in the context
of the
stein, many
are just confused
or, at best, unanswerable"
mind-body
problem
(p.
Shannon Duval, University
Park, Pa.
166).?R.

Richard.
Aesthetics:
Shusterman,
Pragmatist
Living Beauty,
Rethinking
xii + 324 pp.
Art.
Basil Blackwell,
1992.
Cambridge, Massachusetts:
$21.95?This
argument for placing
engaging work presents a persuasive
a morally
at the center, not only of
and somatic pragmatism
populist
and art, but also of what the author calls "the aesthetic
life."
aesthetics
aes
In the opening
chapter the author begins by situating pragmatist
thetics in its philosophical
context,
chiefly through a contrast with an
alytic aesthetics.
Casting the contrast as a renewal of the quarrel be
tween Kantians
the author elaborates
the fundamental
and Hegelians,
to Dewey's
of analytic aesthetics
naturalistic,
instrumental,
opposition

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SUMMARIES AND COMMENTS

167

his emphasis on the

view of aesthetics,
evaluational
and self-consciously
continuity with science and life in all
centrality of art and its profound
richness
of the latter, his re
and socio-economic
the historico-political
an undemocratic
distinction
between high and low
fusal to countenance
on privileging
the aesthetic
experience
art, and finally, his insistence
over the material
is
object identified as the work of art. The contrast
as
author
in
that
the
the
second
the
currently
argues
chapter
deepened
neutral definition of art as a distinct historical
regnant and supposedly
into art history, naively leaving the question of value
practice collapses
to the inner arbitration of the art world and thereby iterating the forced
the author
and aesthetic
of practice
experience.
Though
separation
overcomes
he
these shortcomings,
aesthetics
contends
that pragmatist
at
definition of art as experience,
that the reconstructive
acknowledges
seems
its
revision
elusive"
and
least as Dewey formulates
"obscurely
it,
ambitious"
ary aims "too quixotically
(pp. 55, 58). The author attempts
is meant, not
to counter these objections
by stressing that the definition
to provide criteria for judgment and not to effect a sweeping
reclassifi
In this respect,
cation of art, but to enhance and expedite
experience.
how his project "differs from its Dew
the author emphasizes
however,
Instead of trying to effect a change through a
eyan source" (p. 27).
of art, his aim is "to make a more specific case for
global redefinition
art's borders to forms of popular culture and to the ethical art
widening
of fashioning one's life" (p. 59). The second chapter concludes with an
that theory in general,
effective
rebuttal of the (pragmatist)
challenge
is impotent
aesthetics,
pragmatist
including that of a nonfoundationalist
and impossible.
to show how pragma
In the next three chapters the author attempts
road between
tism "reveals itself as a promising middle
foundational
not only in aesthetics
and deconstruction,"
but also
analytic philosophy
on broader philosophical
issues on which
the themes of organic unity
turn. After establishing
and interpretation
the link between
the Hegel
ian notion of a radical organic unity rejected by Moore and by Derrida's
how this link provides
the author demonstrates
concept of diff?rance,
the foundation
for Culler's deconstructive
arguments against the idea of
an artwork's unity.
In this way (that is, by showing that the arguments
a notion of organic unity) the author deconstructs
decon
presuppose
structionism
and, perhaps more
importantly, outlines pragmatic
justifi
of a work's unity, a presumption
cations for the interpretive presumption
of "foundationally
that does not commit itself to the existence
indepen
In chapter 4, after exposing
dent and self-identical
entities"
(p. 82).
to "satisfy the con
and Margolis
failed attempts by Hirsch, Beardsely,
demands
of
determinate
truth
and
continued
productivity"
flicting
(in
as well as the naive picture of understanding
interpretation)
underlying
the "misreadings"
the author proposes
heralded by deconstructionists,
a pragmatist
as "sense-making,"
account
of interpretation
where
the
and contested
construc
work in question
"turns out to be a continuous
its understanding
and interpretation"
tion of the efforts to determine
(pp.
to showing how the
The
remainder
of
the
is
devoted
86-95).
chapter
theories of Knapp and Michaels, Rorty,
alternative, putatively pragmatist
the domain of aesthetic
and Fish variously
experience"
"impoverish
by
to a work of art (p. 114).
responses
failing to appreciate nonprofessional

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168

GIUSEPPE BUTERA AND STAFF

amounts to recognizing
that understanding,
This appreciation
while cor
is
not
to
be
and
conflated
with
nonfoundationalist,
interpretation,
rigible
a thesis that the author ably defends
to
in chapter 5 by calling attention
both "uninterpreted
and meaningful
experience
linguistic understanding
that is non-linguistic"
of preserving
the
(p. 128) and to the advantages
distinction
between
and
interpretation.
understanding
The author begins the second part of the book, entitled "Rethinking
not to be shunned, but to be
Art," by arguing that high art deserves,
in a "more ethically acute and socio-politically
criticized
engaged" man
ner (p. 147), something
often exemplified?albeit
ambigously?by
high
art itself, as the author attempts
to illustrate in Eliot's "ironic critique of
inPortrait
late romantic art and aestheticism"
of a Lady (p. 161). After
a
art
of
the poles of con
meliorist
defense
popular
mounting
("between
.
.
.
and
demnatory
celebratory
ultimately
pessimism
optimism")
art dichotomy,
of the high/popular
the author
aimed at the dissolution
the rap song "Talkin' All That Jazz" in order to demonstrate
unpacks
how it displays values traditionally
reserved by critics for high art. The
Ethics and the Art of Living,"
entitled
"Postmodern
chapter,
concluding
While the author trenchantly
criticizes
promises more than it delivers.
life, on the basis of that Auseinandersetzung
Rorty's version of aesthetic
he does no more than sketch the outlines of an alternative,
presumably
or less?of
the possibilities
of "an exquisite flower of
composed?more
a classic and ascetic self-creation,
and a so
aestheticist
decadence,"
social aesthetics.
maticaily
the entire book the author devotes far more atten
Indeed, throughout
tion to criticizing
Nev
others' positions
than to developing
his own.
an important book that makes
an
Shustermann
has written
ertheless,
case for a neopragmatist
of aesthetics,
art, and
impressive
conception
the aesthetic
life. The writing
is richly informed, delightfully
lucid, and
O.
The
Catholic
Univer
Dahlstrom,
invitingly argumentative.?Daniel
sity of America.

San Francisco: Westview

Lawrence.
Press,
of Physics.
Philosophy
1992.
xii + 246 pp.
is a sophisti
Cloth $44.00; paper $17.95?This
to the main issues in the philosophy
of
introduction
cated, nontechnical
It is exceptionally
well-written.
The issues are well-chosen,
physics.
into manageable
the prose are clear and concise,
the text is organized
sections arranged in a logical manner,
and the treatment of various po
sitions on the main issues is evenhanded.
Also, each of the three central
that will serve
is supplemented
chapters
by an annotated
bibliography
well as a selective
for
motivated
readers.
guide
The text focuses on philosophical
issues that are connected with three
and
relativity theory, statistical mechanics,
pillars of modern
physics:
to each area.
One chapter is devoted
quantum mechanics.
They are
and flanked by two brief chapters, one prelimi
arranged consecutively
and
the
other
that serve to unify the whole
nary
by means
concluding,
of
themes concerning
the interdependency
of several metaphilosophical

Sklar,

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