Aesthetics, Literature, and Life

The fine line between life and the arts has always been a crucial topic in the philosophical discourse. The essays in this book discuss fundamental issues of modern and contemporary aesthetics, drawing upon the work of the French philosopher Jean-Pierre Cometti, a key figure in the studies of aesthetics, pragmatism and Austrian philosophy. The volume covers a wide-range of topics from the examination of fundamental principles of art and literary criticism to the new understanding of Modernist notion of art, anthropological aesthetics using Musil's "The Man Without Qualities", and the analysis of literary characters such as Tolstoj's Hadji Murat and Cervantes' Don Quixote and Sancho as a tool to cast light on Wittgenstein's philosophy. Editors Carla Carmona and Jerrold Levinson bring together renowned voices in the field of philosophy to offer a window onto Cometti's philosophical work, as well as an in-depth analysis of contemporary art and aesthetic practices, within an effort to overcome the timeless distinction between art and life.