Body Consciousness

Richard Shusterman is the Dorothy F. Schmidt Eminent Scholar in the Humanities and Professor of Philosophy at Florida Atlantic University, Boca Raton. Educated at Jerusalem and Oxford, he is internationally known for his contributions to philosophy and his pioneering work in somaesthetics, a field of theory and practice devoted to thinking through the body. A recipient of senior Fulbright and National Endowment for the Humanities fellowships, Dr Shusterman has held academic positions in Paris, Berlin, and Hiroshima, and is the author of several books, most recently Surface and Depth and Performing Live. His Pragmatist Aesthetics has been published in thirteen languages.

• Introduction; 1. Somaesthetics and care of the self: the case of Foucault; 2. The silent, limping body of philosophy: somatic attention deficit in Merleau-Ponty; 3. Somatic subjectivities and somatic subjugation: Beauvoir on gender and ageing; 4. Wittgenstein's somaesthetics: explanation and melioration in philosophy of mind, art, and politics; 5. Deeper into the storm center: the somatic philosophy of William James; 6. Redeeming somatic reflection: John Dewey's philosophy of body-mind.

'In this beautifully written book, Shusterman articulates his unique conception of somaesthetics, in which reflective bodily awareness is presented as a means for self-cultivation … deeply insightful and highly original … a compelling and highly nuanced account of what bodily consciousness is, how it is possible, and how it can contribute to individual and communal flourishing.' Mark Johnson, University of Oregon