Anti-textualist Anty-ssentualism. The Philosophy of Richard Shusterman Cover Image

Anty-esencjalizm nietekstowy. 0 filozofii Richarda Shustermana
Anti-textualist Anty-ssentualism. The Philosophy of Richard Shusterman

Author(s): Anna Budziak
Subject(s): Literary Texts
Published by: Wydawnictwo Uniwersytetu Śląskiego

Summary/Abstract: Richard Shusterman's philosophy is outlined here as (1) providing a critique of Richard Rorty's "textualism" and (2) offering a philosophical alternative to Rorty's aestheticized ethics. In his critique of textualism, Shusterman points out the ontological as well as social and economic repercussions of Rorty's philosophical tenets: privileging the private discourse over the public, rendering self-definition exclusively in terms of self-narratives and prioritizing the aesthetic criterion of novelty. Shusterman proposes expanding the self-narrative's evaluative criteria by affirming integrity, harmony and growth. He also creates the discipline of somaesthetics: a branch of aesthetics which lays emphasis on the somatic aspect of the self and which defines the idea of "the aesthetic experience" as affective and transformational, thus capable of changing the course of life conducted not only within the textual confines but also hors de texte.

  • Issue Year: 2006
  • Issue No: 12
  • Page Range: 9-24
  • Page Count: 16