Ethics and Aesthetics in Social Life

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.