Description
James Lewis asks whether it is rational to evaluate others on the basis of their appearance, manner, and presence, a question that has gone largely unaddressed in philosophy despite its everyday and political significance.
Situating this inquiry within debates about social injustice, this book explores how aesthetic judgment intersects with race, class, gender, disability, and power. While critical and feminist traditions have highlighted the harms of such judgments, Lewis argues that a full political critique must also reckon with the indispensable role of aesthetics in social goods such as friendship and human connection.
Drawing on ethics, aesthetics, feminist theory, and philosophy of mind, Lewis defends a rational account of interpersonal valuing and clarifies the aesthetic dimensions of human connection. He brings together previously disconnected philosophical debates to illuminate a problem that is at once personal, political, and deeply practical. This is a timely examination of how aesthetic impressions shape interpersonal relations and influence whom people like, trust, and value.
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Table of Contents
I. The ideological context
1. Stigma in the aesthetics of friendship
2. Non-ideal aesthetic theory
II. The value of interpersonal aesthetic attunement
3. The two-movement view of love
4. Appreciation and fungibility
5. The peculiar allure of another's aesthetic worldview
6. Aesthetic mediation
III. Phenomenological application
7. The musicality of speech
8. Tactile interpersonal experience
Conclusion
Bibliography
Product details
| Published | 18 Feb 2027 |
|---|---|
| Format | Ebook (PDF) |
| Edition | 1st |
| Pages | 208 |
| ISBN | 9781350667068 |
| Imprint | Bloomsbury Academic |
| Publisher | Bloomsbury Publishing |
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