Surface and Depth: Dialectics of Criticism and Culture

Richard Shusterman

Published by Cornell University Press 2002

Surface and Depth

Dialectics of Criticism and Culture

Richard Shusterman

https://doi.org/10.7591/9781501718151

Overview
Contents

About this book

A paradox of surface and depth pervades the field of aesthetics. How can art's surface meanings and qualities be properly appreciated without understanding the cultural context that shapes their creation and perception? But exploring such underlying...

Author / Editor information

Richard Shusterman is Professor of Philosophy at Temple University and the Collège International de Philosophie. His books include Performing Live: Aesthetic Alternatives for the Ends of Art (also from Cornell), Pragmatist Aesthetics, and Practicing Philosophy.

Reviews

Those familiar with Shusterman's work will find here the critical insight, careful argument, and clever prose they expect. Those who have not before had the pleasure of reading him will find there is no one better at distilling and analyzing contemporary aesthetics: the chapters on Croce, Wittgenstein, Alain Locke, T. S. Eliot, and Bourdieu are exempla of analytic sensitivity combined with the principle of charity.... Summing Up: Recommended. Upper-level undergraduates and above.

Rita Felski, University of Virginia:

Richard Shusterman is one of the most interesting voices in contemporary aesthetics. In this impeccably lucid book he delivers a rigorous assessment of diverse theories of art and makes an eloquent case for the deep value of aesthetic surfaces.

Bryon E. Bronston:

Philosophy texts are not the usual fare on our book review menu. This reviewer now feels that we might wish to broaden our diet. In Shusterman's book we find that rare example of a theoretical text that is palatable, even enjoyable for the non-philosopher reader. But best of all, by constructing a new ground for criticism he provides cogent underpinnings for our studies in vernacular architecture.

Arthur C. Danto, Columbia University:

In the 1960s, artists became concerned with closing the gap between art and life. Philosophers responded by insisting that such a gap is essential if art is to have any meaning. In this masterful and informed philosophical critique, Richard Shusterman shows how his pragmatist aesthetics can dissolve the dilemma and realign the relationships among philosophy, art, and life.

John Danvers, University of Plymouth, UK:

Surface and Depth is an excellent text, combining lucidity and keen analytical thinking with an ability to challenge preconceptions, to make surprising connections and to open up new avenues of enquiry. I would encourage anyone interested in aesthetics, arts criticism, cultural theory and philosophy to read this book and to enter into a richly rewarding engagement with a stimulating and lively mind.

Gustavo Guerra, George Washington University:

In Shusterman's discourse, instrumentalities are always parts of the ends they create. His pragmatism is therefore best described as reconstructive, advancing and refashioning the experiential realm.... This is pragmatism at its best, and what this discursive mode accomplishes is a deeper understanding that in turn... leads to better experiences and end results.... The beauty of this methodology is that it intelligent avoids the danger of a naive pragmatism... that is all surface manifesto for action, while it also avoids the danger of a pragmatism that locks itself into deep abstract theory with no sense of how it gets redirected toward practice and experience. Because Surface and Depth manages to do this with such élan and perspicacity, I situate it among the best, most interesting, and thought-provoking philosophical kind of work currently taking place.

Topics

Frontmatter Publicly Available Download PDF	i
Contents Publicly Available Download PDF	ix
Preface Publicly Available Download PDF	xi
Introduction Requires Authentication Unlicensed Licensed Download PDF	1
Part I: Logics of Criticism
1. On Analytic Aesthetics: From Empiricism to Metaphysics Requires Authentication Unlicensed Licensed Download PDF	15
2. Logics of Interpretation: The Persistence of Pluralism Requires Authentication Unlicensed Licensed Download PDF	34
3. Croce on Interpretation: Deconstruction and Pragmatism Requires Authentication Unlicensed Licensed Download PDF	53
4. Wittgenstein and Critical Reasoning Requires Authentication Unlicensed Licensed Download PDF	72
Part II: Logics of Culture
5. Of the Scandal of Taste: Social Privilege as Nature in the Aesthetics of Hume and Kant Requires Authentication Unlicensed Licensed Download PDF	91
6. Convention: Variations on the Nature/Culture Theme Requires Authentication Unlicensed Licensed Download PDF	108
7. From Natural Roots to Cultural Radicalism: Pragmatist Aesthetics in Alain Locke and John Dewey Requires Authentication Unlicensed Licensed Download PDF	123
8. Eliot and Adorno on the Critique of Culture Requires Authentication Unlicensed Licensed Download PDF	139
9. Deep Theory and Surface Blindness: On the Aesthetic Visibility of Print Requires Authentication Unlicensed Licensed Download PDF	159
Part III: Contemporary Reconstructions
10. Art in a Box: Danto Requires Authentication Unlicensed Licensed Download PDF	175
11. Pragmatism and Culture: Margolis and Rorty Requires Authentication Unlicensed Licensed Download PDF	191
12. Cultural Analysis and the Limits of Philosophy: The Case of Bourdieu Requires Authentication Unlicensed Licensed Download PDF	208
13. Art as Dramatization Requires Authentication Unlicensed Licensed Download PDF	226
Notes Requires Authentication Unlicensed Licensed Download PDF	239
Index Requires Authentication Unlicensed Licensed Download PDF	275

(Deutsch)

Language: English
Publisher: Cornell University Press
Audience: General/trade;
Pages
- Main content: 304
Keywords: Philosophy; Art History

eBook

Published: August 6, 2018
ISBN: 9781501718151