Aesthetic Life and Why It Matters

Dominic McIver Lopes FRSC teaches philosophy at the University of British Columbia and has written on a wide variety of topics in aesthetics, including the meaning and value of images, new technologies in the arts, and theories of art and aesthetic value. He is now writing a book on aesthetic injustice. Bence Nanay is Professor of Philosophy and BOF Research Professor at the University of Antwerp and the Director of European Network for Sensory Research. He is the author of Between Perception and Action (2013), Aesthetics as Philosophy of Perception (2016) and Aesthetics: A Very Short Introduction (2019), all with Oxford University Press as well as six forthcoming books. His main focus of work these days is a project on global aesthetics. Nick Riggle is Associate Professor of Philosophy at the University of San Diego. He is the author of On Being Awesome: A Unified Theory of How Not to Suck (2017), as well as several articles on aesthetic value and why it matters. His most recent book is This Beauty: A Philosophy of Being Alive (2022).

Introduction

Chapter 1: Unlocking Experience by Bence Nanay

Chapter 2: Aesthetic Lives: Individuality, Freedom, Community by Nick Riggle

Chapter 3: Getting into It: Ventures in Aesthetic Life by Dominic McIver Lopes

Breakout by Dominic McIver Lopes, Bence Nanay, Nick Riggle