Shusterman’s Pragmatism

This book is the first essay collection on Richard Shusterman, the foremost representative of contemporary pragmatist aesthetics, a philosopher whose books have been translated into more than fifteen languages. The 12 essays, which cover the wide-ranging scope of Shusterman’s pragmatist thought, divide into three sections: Literary Theory and Philosophy of Art; Epistemology, Metaphysics, Ethics, and Politics; and Somaesthetics. Written by an international group of authors from different philosophical perspectives, the book’s essays not only provide a good introduction to Shusterman’s innovative pragmatist theories, but show their useful applications to important and controversial topics in philosophy, politics, religious and gender studies, the arts, and somaesthetics. The book also includes two new texts by Shusterman: an introductory essay in which he explains the trajectory of his intellectual development and a detailed response to the other contributors, which closes the book.

"There are few contemporary thinkers in the tradition of American pragmatism as prolific or as creative as Richard Shusterman. His thought and work range from analytic aesthetics to political philosophy, from ethics to the importance of bodily habits in modern society. … Th[is] volume … highlights the remarkable international reception of Shusterman’s ideas. … [it] represents a valuable and unique contribution to contemporary pragmatism. No serious student of Dewey’s pragmatism or of Shusterman’s continually developing project of somaesthetics should be without this book on their shelves." – in: Journal of Aesthetic Education (2014)
"the articles of the collection make up a nice read …" – in: Transactions of the Charles S. Peirce Society 28/4