Somaesthetics: A Disciplinary Proposal

Richard Shusterman

The Journal of Aesthetics and Art Criticism, Vol. 57, No. 3. (Summer, 1999), pp. 299-313.

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http://www.jstor.org Mon Feb 18 13:51:19 2008 RICHARD SHUSTERMAN

Somaesthetics:A Disciplinary Proposal

"Beauty is a great recommendation," wrote tentative, my proposal remained very vague. Montaigne, "and there is no man so barbarous Suggesting somaesthetics as a possibility worth and sturdy as not to be somewhat struck by its exploring, I dared not presume to define it by charm. The body has a great part in our being, it proposing a systematic account of what topics, holds a high rank in it; so its structure and com- concepts, aims, and practices it would comprise. position are well worth consideration."' The After almost three millennia of philosophy, to focus of Montaigne's somatic interest here is ob- propose a new philosophical discipline might viously not the body's physiological compo- seem a reckless act of arrogance; to suggest one nents but its aesthetic functioning, its potential centered on the body could only add absurdity to for beauty. hubris. At the risk of further ridicule,5 I now This aesthetic potential, I have elsewhere ar- wish to outline the basic aims and elements of gued, is at least twofold: As an object grasped by somaesthetics and to explain how it could pro- our external senses, the body (of another or even mote some of philosophy's most crucial con- one's own) can provide beautiful sensory per- cerns. The purpose is to show its potential utility, ceptions or (in Kant's famous terminology) "rep- not its radical novelty. If somaesthetics is radi- resentations." But there is also the beautiful ex- cal, it is only in the sense of returning to some of perience of one's own body from within-the the deepest roots of aesthetics and philosophy. endorphin-enhanced glow of high-level cardio- To show how somaesthetics is firmly vascular functioning, the slow savoring aware- grounded in aesthetic tradition, I begin by exam- ness of improved, deeper breathing, the tingling ining the philosophical text that founded modem thrill of feeling into new parts of one's spine.2 If aesthetics, Alexander Baumgarten's Aesthetica this appeal to the proprioceptive beauty of per- (175011758). Baumgarten's original aesthetic sonal somatic experience seems strangely idio- project will be seen to have far greater scope and syncratic or weirdly "New Age," consider the practical import than what we recognize as aes- 1884 remark of Jean-Marie Guyau, the once re- thetics today, implying an entire program of nowned author of Les problemes de l'esthe'tique philosophical self-perfection in the art of living. contemporaine: "To breathe deeply, sensing how I then outline the discipline of somaesthetics, one's blood is purified through its contact with showing how it shares the same enlarged scope, the air and how one's whole circulatory system multiple dimensions, and practical element that takes on new activity and strength, this is truly Baumgarten urged, while also promoting pre- an almost intoxicating delight whose aesthetic cisely those aims that philosophy traditionally value can hardly be denied."' defines as central to its own project: aims such as Rather than denying it, my aim in this paper is knowledge, virtue, and the good life. But in pur- to affirm Montaigne's and Guyau's aesthetic at- suing Baumgarten's broad vision of aesthetics tention to the body but also to render it more sys- and its practical, perfectionist ideal, somaesthet- tematic. In exploring the body's crucial and ics goes even further by also embracing a crucial complex role in aesthetic experience, I previ- feature that Baumgarten unfortunately omitted ously proposed the idea of a body-centered dis- from his aesthetic program-cultivation of the cipline that I called soma esthetic^."^ Timidly body. Modem philosophy too often displays the

The Journal of Aesthetics and Art Criticism 57:3 Summer 1999 The Journal of Aesthetics and Art Criticism same sad somatic neglect. I conclude, however, the art of beautiful thinking, and art of analogi- by considering two contemporary philosophers, cal thought) is the science of sensory cognition" John Dewey and Michel Foucault, who differ- (91). This vaster scope of all sensory perception ently exemplify my idea of somaesthetics, though allows Baumgarten to distinguish aesthetics from without properly thematizing or articulating this the already established scientific disciplines of field as such. The paper closes by raising an im- poetics and rhetoric. Like these disciplines (and portant theoretical issue that somaesthetics must like its austere "sister," logic), aesthetics is not face: the possibility of assessing individual body merely a theoretical enterprise, but also a nor- tastes and practices in terms of more general so- mative practice-a discipline that implies prac- matic values or norms. tical exercise or training that is aimed at achiev- ing useful ends. "The end of aesthetics," writes ~aum~arten,"is the perfection of sensory cogni- tion as such, this implying beauty," while the When Alexander Baumgarten coined the term contrasting "imperfection" (identified as "defor- "aesthetics" to ground a formal philosophical mity") is to be avoided ($14). discipline, his aims for that discipline went far Aesthetics as a systematic discipline of per- beyond the focus of what now defines philo- fecting sensory cognition ("artificialis aesthet- sophical aesthetics: the theory of fine art and ices") is both distinguished from and built upon natural bea~ty.~Deriving its name from the what Baumgarten calls "natural aesthetics" Greek "aisthesis" (sensory perception), Baum- ("aesthetica naturalis"), which he defines as the garten intended his new philosophical science to innate workings of our sensory cognitive facul- comprise a general theory of sensory knowl- ties and their natural development through non- edge. Such an aesthetics was meant to comple- systematic learning and exercise. The aesthetic ment logic, the two together designed to provide goal of systematically perfecting our sensory a comprehensive theory of knowledge he termed perception requires, of course, the crucial nat- "Gnoseology." ural gifts of our lower (i.e., sense-related) cogni- Though following his Leibnizian teacher tive faculties. Baumgarten insists especially on Christian Wolff in calling such sensory percep- "keenness of sensation," "imaginative capacity," tion a "lower faculty," Baumgarten's aim was "penetrating insight," "good memory," "poetic not to denounce its inferiority. Instead Aesthet- disposition," "good taste," "foresight," and "ex- ica argues for the cognitive value of sensory per- pressive talent." But all of these, he argues, must ception, celebrating its rich potential not only for be governed by "the higher faculties of under- better thinking but for better living. In the book's standing and reason" ('yacultates cognoscitivae "~role~omena,"Baumgarten asserts that aes- superiores ... intellectus et ratio," $530-38). thetic study will promote greater knowledge in The perfectionist project of aesthetics must, several different ways: by supplying better sen- however, go beyond all these (high and low) nat- sory perception as "good material for science" to urally developed faculties. It further requires a work with; by presenting its own special sort of systematic program of instruction that includes sensory perception as a "suitable" object of sci- two branches. The first (askesis or exercitatio ence; by therefore "advancing science beyond aesthetica) is a program of practical exercise or the limits of treating only clear [i.e., logical] per- training. Here, through repetitive drill of certain ception"; and by providing "good foundations kinds of actions, one learns to instill harmony of for all contemplative activity and the liberal mind with respect to a given theme or thought arts." Finally, the improvement of sensory per- ($47). Contrasting such aesthetic drill to the me- ception through aesthetic study will "give an in- chanical drill of soldiers, Baumgarten defines it dividual, ceteris paribus, an advantage over oth- as including also the systematic practicing of im- ers" not just in thought but "in the practical provisation and even the playing of games, as action of common life" ($3). well as exercises in the more erudite arts ($$52, The wide-ranging utility that Baumgarten 55, 58). claims for aesthetics is implicit in his initial def- The second part of aesthetic instruction is dis- inition of the discipline: "Aesthetics (as the the- tinctively theoretical. To this theoretical study ory of the liberal arts, science of lower cognition, (which Baumgarten calls mathesis and disci- Shusterman Somaesthetics: A Disciplinary Propo plina aesthetica) belong all the fine forms of in paragraph 10, should not be "stirred up" in knowledge (pulchra eruditio), whose "most im- their corrupt state but rather controlled, im- portant parts are the sciences of God, of the uni- proved, and properly directed through aesthetic verse, and of man," especially those sciences of training. To designate the body by the sinfully man dealing with "his moral stature, history, not charged term "flesh" shows Baumgarten's theo- excluding myth, ancient cultures and displays of logical distaste for the somatic; and the Latin his signifying genius" (§§62-64). But the theo- connotations of car0 (as opposed to the more retical discipline of aesthetics must also include standard carnis) are especially negati~e.~ a general "theory of the form of beautiful cogni- Such clues suggest a religious motive for tion" ("theoria de forma pulchrae cognitionis") Baumgarten's exclusion of the body from his to complement the already established rules and aesthetic project of sensory s~ience.~More spe- theories in the specific aesthetic disciplines of cific philosophical reasons can also be surmised. oratory, poetry, music, etc. (§§68,69). In the rationalist tradition that Baumgarten in- The major aims, concepts, and structural com- herited from Descartes through Leibniz to Wolff, ponents of ~aurn~arten'sfounding project of the body was regarded as a mere machine. It aesthetics deserve far more detailed attention could therefore never truly be a site of sentience than this brief account provides. (If it is shock- or sensory perception, let alone knowledge. On ing how little today's aestheticians know Baum- the other hand, these philosophies that sharply gahen's work, it seems even more scandalous divide the body from the perceiving mind were that his Aesthetica is still not translated into Eng- themselves largely inspired by religious doc- li~h).~My skeletal sketch of Baugmarten's aes- trines that denigrated the body to save and cele- thetics should nonetheless suffice both to suggest brate the immaterial soul. its pragmatic potential and to highlight a theme Whatever Baumgarten's precise reasons for ne- that is astoundingly absent, yet logically re- glecting the body in aesthetics, they do not justify quired, from his project: cultivation of the body. its continued neglect. Very interesting genealogi- Baumgarten defines aesthetics as the science cal inquiries could be directed to tracing this per- of sensory cognition and as aimed at its perfec- sistent tradition of somaesthetic neglect and to ex- tion. But the senses surely belong to the body plaining why the scope of post-Baumgartenian and are deeply influenced by its condition. Our aesthetics was reduced from the vast field of sen- sensory perception thus depends on how the sory cognition to the narrow compass of beauty body feels and functions, what it desires, does, and fine art. We might further inquire why the and suffers. Yet Baumgarten refuses to include initial pragmatic and meliorative aspect of aes- the study and perfection of the body within his thetics (i.e., its Baumgartenian definition as a dis- aesthetic program. Of the many fields of knowl- cipline for perfecting perception and thus action) edge therein embraced, from theology to ancient has likewise disappeared. How, in other words, myth, there is no mention of anything like phys- has aesthetics, like philosophy itself, shrunk from iology or physiognomy. Of the wide range of a noble art of living into a minor, specialized, aesthetic exercises Baumgarten envisages, no university discipline?lo distinctively bodily exercise is recommended. Intriguing as these inquiries are, my prime goals On the contrary, he seems keen to discourage here are reconstructive rather than historical: vigorous body training, explicitly denouncing what he calls "fierce athletics" ('yerociae athlet- 1) to revive Baumgarten's idea of aesthetics as a icae"), which he puts on a par with other pre- life-improving cognitive discipline that ex- sumed somatic evils like "lust," "licentiousness," tends far beyond questions of beauty and fine and "orgies" (950). arts and that involves both theory and practi- This neglect of bodily training and theory for cal exercise; aesthetics appears even more shocking when we 2) to end the neglect of the body that Baum- realize that Baumgarten essentially identifies the garten disastrously introduced into aesthetics body with the lower faculties of sense, precisely (a neglect intensified by the great idealist tra- those faculties whose cognition forms the very dition in nineteenth-century aesthetics); and object of aesthetics. "The lower faculties, the 3) to propose an enlarged, somatically centered flesh" ('yacultates inferiores, carom),he writes field, somaesthetics, that can contribute sig- The Journal of Aesthetics and Art Criticism

nificantly to many crucial philosophical con- virtue. Aristippus, founder of the Cyrenaic cerns, thus enabling philosophy to more suc- school, insisted "that bodily training contributes cessfully redeem its original role as an art of to the acquisition of virtue," since fit bodies pro- living. vide sharper perceptions and more discipline and versatility for adapting oneself in thought, attitude, and action. Zeno, founder of Stoicism, likewise urged regular bodily exercise, claiming Somaesthetics can be provisionally defined as that "proper care of health and one's organs of the critical, meliorative study of the experience sense" are "unconditional duties." Cynicism's and use of one's body as a locus of sensory- founder was even more outspoken in advocating aesthetic appreciation (aisthesis) and creative bodily training as essential for the sensory knowl- self-fashioning. It is therefore also devoted to edge and discipline that wisdom and the good the knowledge, discourses, practices, and bodily life demanded. Practicing the somatic discipline disciplines that structure such somatic care or he preached, Diogenes experimented with a va- can improve it. If we put aside traditional philo- riety of body practices to test and toughen him- sophical prejudice against the body and instead self: from eating raw food and walking barefoot simply recall philosophy's central aims of in the snow to masturbating in public and ac- knowledge, self-knowledge, right action, and its cepting the blows of drunken revelers.12 quest for the good life, then the philosophical Recognition of somatic training as an essen- value of somaesthetics should become clear in tial means toward philosophical enlightenment several ways. lies at the heart of Asian practices of Hatha Yoga, Zen meditation, and T'ai chi ch'uan. As Japan- i. Since knowledge is largely based on sensory ese philosopher Yuasa Yusuo insists, the concept perception whose reliability often proves ques- of "personal cultivation" or shugyo is presup- tionable, philosophy has always been concerned posed in Eastern thought as "the philosophical with the critique of the senses, exposing their foundation." Such shugyo training has an essen- limits and avoiding their misguidance by sub- tial bodily component, since "true knowledge jecting them to discursive reason. Philosophy's cannot be obtained simply by means of theoreti- work here (at least in Western modernity) has cal thinking," but only "through 'bodily recogni- been confined to the sort of second-order critical tion or realization' (tainin or taitoku)."13 Like analysis of sensory propositions that constitutes these ancient Asian practices, contemporary traditional epistemology. The complementary Western body disciplines such as the Alexander route offered by somaesthetics is instead to cor- Technique, the Feldenkrais Method, and Bioen- rect the actual functional performance of our ergetics seek to improve the acuity, health, and senses by an improved direction of one's body, control of our senses by cultivating heightened since the senses belong to and are conditioned attention to and mastery of their somatic func- by the soma. tioning, while also freeing us from bodily habits This somaesthetic strategy has ancient philo- and defects that impair sensory performance.14 sophical roots. Socrates himself affirmed the From this somaesthetic philosophical perspec- crucial role of somatic care, and "took care to tive, knowledge of the world is improved not by exercise his body and kept it in good condition" denying our bodily senses but by perfecting by regular dance training and simple living. "The them. body," he declared, "is valuable for all human activities, and in all its uses it is very important ii. If self-knowledge (rather than mere knowl- that it should be as fit as possible. Even in the act edge of worldly facts) is philosophy's prime cog- of thinking, which is supposed to require least nitive aim, then knowledge of one's bodily di- assistance from the body, everyone knows that mension must not be ignored. Concerned not serious mistakes often happen through physical simply with the body's external form or repre- ill-health."" sentation but also with its lived experience, so- Socrates was far from heterodox here. Many maesthetics works at improving awareness of ancient Greek philosophers likewise advocated our bodily states and feelings, thus providing somatic training for the pursuit of wisdom and greater insight into both our passing moods and Shusterman Somaesthetics: A Disciplinary Proposal 303 lasting attitudes. It can therefore reveal and im- however strong, still remains impotent, since it prove somatic malfunctionings that normally go lacks the somatic sensibility-the corporeal ais- undetected even though they impair our well- thesis-to make it effective. Such somatic mis- being and performance. perception and weakening of the will stunts our Consider two examples. We rarely notice our efforts at virtue; hence, virtue itself demands so- breathing, but its rhythm and depth provide matic self-perfection. rapid, reliable evidence of our emotional state. Today's proponents of such reasoning are Consciousness of breathing can therefore make body therapists outside the current bounds of le- us aware that we are angry, tense, or anxious gitimized philosophy, but their argument has an- when we might otherwise remain unaware of cient philosophical credentials. Diogenes the these feelings and thus vulnerable to their misdi- Cynic was not alone in employing it to advocate rection. Similarly, a chronic muscular contrac- rigorous body training as "that whereby, with tion that not only constrains movement but re- constant exercise, perceptions are formed such sults in tension and pain may nonetheless go as secure freedom of movement for virtuous unnoticed because it has become habitual. As deeds."lS unnoticed, this chronic contraction cannot be re- lieved, nor can its resultant disability and dis- iv. Pursuit of virtue and self-mastery is tradition- comfort. Yet once such somatic functioning is ally integrated into ethics' quest for better living. brought to clear attention, there is a chance to If philosophy is concerned with the pursuit of modify it and avoid its unhealthy consequences, happiness, then somaesthetics' concern with the which include not only pain but a dulling of the body as the locus and medium of our pleasures senses, a diminution of aesthetic sensitivity and clearly deserves more philosophical attention. pleasure. Even the joys and stimulations of so-called pure thought are (for us embodied humans) influenced iii. A third central aim of philosophy is virtue by somatic conditioning and require muscular and right action, for which we need knowledge contraction. They can therefore be intensified or and self-knowledge, but also effective will. Since better savored through improved somatic aware- action is only achieved through the body, our ness and discipline. A very sad curiosity of re- power of volition-the ability to act as we will cent philosophy is that so much inquiry has been to act-depends on somatic efficacy. Through devoted to the ontology and epistemology of somaesthetics' exploration and discipline of our pain, so little to its psychosomatic management, bodily experience, we can gain a practical, to its mastery and transformation into tranquil- "hands-on" grasp of the actual workings of ef- lity or pleasure. '6 fective volition-a better mastery of the will's concrete application in behavior. Knowing and v. These four neglected points do not exhaust the desiring the right action will not avail if we can- ways that somatics is central to philosophy. not will our bodies to perform it; and our sur- Michel Foucault's seminal vision of the body as prising inability to perform the most simple bod- a docile, malleable site for inscribing social ily tasks is matched only by our astounding power reveals the crucial role somatics can play blindness to this inability, these failures resulting for political philosophy. It offers a way of under- from inadequate somaesthetic awareness. standing how complex hierarchies of power can Just think of the struggling golfer who tries to be widely exercised and reproduced without any keep his head down and his eyes on the ball and need to make them explicit in laws or to offi- who is completely convinced that he is doing so, cially enforce them. Entire ideologies of domi- even though he in fact miserably fails to. His nation can thus be covertly materialized and pre- conscious will is unsuccessful because deeply served by encoding them in somatic norms that, ingrained somatic habits ovenide it; and he does as bodily habits, typically get taken for granted not even notice this failure because his habitual and therefore escape critical consciousness. For sense perception is so inadequate and distorted example, the presumptions that "proper" women that it feels as if the action intended is indeed speak softly, stay slim, eat dainty foods, sit with performed as willed. In too much of our action their legs close together, assume the passive role we are like the "head-lifting" golfer whose will, or lower position in (heterosexual) copulation The Journal of Aesthetics and Art Criticism are embodied norms that sustain women's social supervenience to bodybuilding's principles of disempowerment while granting them full offi- supersets.18 The second thing lacking in most cial liberty. current philosophical body talk is a clear prag- However, if oppressive power relations can matic orientation-something that the individ- impose onerous identities that get encoded and ual can directly translate into a discipline of im- sustained in our bodies, these oppressive rela- proved somatic practice. Both these deficiencies tions can themselves be challenged by alterna- can be remedied by the proposed field of so- tive somatic practices. Fruitfully embraced by maesthetics, a discipline of theory and practice. recent feminist and queer body theorists, this Foucauldian message has long been part of the program of body therapists like F. M. Alexander, Wilhelm Reich, and Moshe Feldenkrais. Somaesthetics has three fundamental dimensions. vi. Beyond the essential epistemological, ethical, i. Analytic somaesthetics describes the basic na- and sociopolitical issues already mentioned, the ture of bodily perceptions and practices and also body plays a crucial role in ontology. Just as of their function in our knowledge and construc- Nietzsche and Merleau-Ponty show its ontolog- tion of reality. This theoretical dimension in- ical centrality as the focal point from which our volves traditional ontological and epistemologi- world and reciprocally ourselves are construc- cal issues of the body, but also includes the sort tively projected, so analytic philosophy exam- of sociopolitical inquiries Foucault and Pierre ines the body as a criterion for personal identity Bourdieu have made central: how the body is and as the ontological ground (through its cen- both shaped by power and employed as an in- tral nervous system) for explaining mental strument to maintain it, how bodily norms of states." health, skill, and beauty, and even the most basic categories of sex and gender, are constructed to vii. Finally, outside the legitimized realm of aca- reflect and sustain social forces.19 demic philosophy, somatic therapists like Reich, Foucault's approach to these somatic issues Alexander, and Feldenkrais affirm deep recipro- was typically genealogical, portraying the his- cal influences between one's body and one's torical emergence of various body doctrines, psychological development. Somatic malfunc- norms, and practices. Bourdieu's work extends tioning is explained as both a product and a rein- this descriptive approach with a sociologically forcing cause of personality problems, which detailed synchronic analysis of the social consti- themselves may require body work for their tution and deployment of body norms, which can proper remedy. Similar claims are made by yogis be further complemented by comparative analy- and Zen masters, but also by bodybuilders and ses that contrast the body views and practices of martial arts practitioners. In these diverse disci- two or more synchronic cultures. The value of plines, somatic training forms the heart of such historical-social analysis does not preclude ethics' care of the self, a prerequisite to mental a place for somaesthetic analytics of a more uni- well-being and psychological self-mastery. versalist bent, like the kind found in Merleau- Ponty and in the standard ontological theories of These seven points may remind us that there the mind-body relationship: dualism, epiphenom- is already an abundance of discourse on the body enalism, eliminative materialism, functionalism, in contemporary theory. But such body talk emergentism, and their respective subvarieties. tends to lack two important features. First, it needs a structuring overview or architectonic to ii. In contrast to analytic somaesthetics, whose integrate its very different, seemingly incom- logic (whether genealogical or ontological) is mensurable, discourses into a more productively descriptive, pragmatic somaesthetics has a dis- systematic field. It would be useful to have a tinctly normative, prescriptive character-by comprehensive framework that could connect proposing specific methods of somatic improve- the discourse of biopolitics with the therapies of ment and engaging in their comparative critique. Bioenergetics and might even link analytic phi- Since the viability of any proposed method will losophy's ontological doctrines of psychosomatic depend on certain facts about the body (whether Shusterman Somaesthetics: A Disciplinary Proposal 305 ontological, physiological, or social), this prag- the 'corpus"') in contrast to the inner living matic dimension will always presuppose the an- spirit.21 Attention to the body is thus always alytic dimension. But it transcends mere analysis alienated attention to an external representation not simply by evaluating the facts that analysis outside one's spiritual self. Moreover, as exter- describes, but by proposing various methods to nal representation, it is inescapably dominated improve certain facts by remaking the body and and deployed by society's corrupt masters of the society. image-advertising and propaganda. Over the long course of human history, a vast variety of pragmatic disciplines have been rec- The idolizing of the vital phenomena from the "blond ommended to improve our experience and use of beast" to the South Sea islanders inevitably leads to the body: diverse diets, body piercing and scari- the "sarong film" and the advertising posters for vita- fication, forms of dance and martial arts, yoga, min pills and skin creams which simply stand for the massage, aerobics, bodybuilding, various erotic immanent aim of publicity: the new, great, beautiful, arts (including consensual sadomasochism), and and noble type of man-the Fiihrer and his storm such modem psychosomatic therapies as the troopers.22 Alexander Technique, the Feldenkrais Method, Bioenergetics, Rolfing, etc. Enthusiasts of bodily beauty and bodily train- These diverse methodologies of practice can ing are not merely superficial; they are more sin- be roughly classified in terms of representational isterly linked to fascist exterminators, who treat and experiential forms. Representational somaes- the human body as a mere "physical sub- thetics emphasizes the body's external appear- stance,"23 a malleable mechanical tool whose ance, while experiential disciplines prefer to parts must be shaped and sharpened to make it focus on the aesthetic quality of its "inner" expe- more effectively serve whatever power controls rience. Such experiential methods aim to make it. By such Nazi logic, if bodies are no longer in us "feel better" in both senses of this ambiguous good repair, they should be melted down into phrase (which reflects the ambiguity of the very soap or converted into some other useful thing notion of aesthetics): to make the quality of our like a lamp shade. experience more satisfyingly rich, but also to make our awareness of somatic experience more Those who extolled the body above all else, the gym- acute and perceptive. Cosmetic practices (from nasts and scouts, always had the closest affinity with make-up and hair-styling to plastic surgery) ex- killing. ... They see the body as a moving mechanism, emplify the representational side of somaesthet- with joints as its components and flesh to cushion the ics, while practices like yoga, zazen meditation, skeleton. They use the body and its parts as though or Feldenkrais's "Awareness Through Move- they were already separated from it. ... They measure ment" are paradigmatic of the experiential mode others, without realizing it, with the gaze of a coffin in its senses of both heightened quality and per- maker [and so call them] tall, short, fat or heavy. ... ceptual acuity.20 Language keeps pace with them. It has transformed a Some popular body practices (like aerobics) walk into motion and a meal into calories.24 do not fall exclusively into either category. But the representationaVexperientia1 distinction re- Formulated more than fifty years ago, mains useful, particularly for refuting certain ar- Horkheimer and Adorno's critique remains a guments that would condemn somaesthetics as powerful summary of today's major indictments intrinsically superficial and devoid of the spiri- against aesthetics of the body. By promoting se- tual. Horkheimer and Adorno's famous critique ductive images of bodily beauty and excellence, of somatics provides a good example of such somaesthetics stands accused as a tool of capi- arguments. talist advertising and political repression. It Any attempt "to bring about a renaissance of alienates, reifies, and fragments the body, treat- the body" must fail, they claim, because it im- ing it as an external means and mechanism that plicitly reinforces our culture's "distinction ... be- is anatomized into separate areas of intensive tween the body and the spirit." As an object of labor for ostentatious measurable results and the care, the body will be representationally exteri- sale of countless commodities marketed to orized as a mere physical thing ("the dead thing, achieve them. Hence we find our preoccupation The Journal of Aesthetics and Art Criticism with body measurements and with specialized sought for their own sake. The dieter becomes an "fitness" classes devoted to "abs," thighs, butts, anorexic craving the inner feel of hunger; the and so forth; hence the billion-dollar cosmetics bodybuilder becomes an addict of the experien- industry with its specialized products for differ- tial surge of "the pump." ent body parts. A somatic aesthetics, the argu- Conversely, somatic methods aimed at inner ment continues, must therefore undermine indi- experience often employ representational means viduality and freedom by urging conformity to as cues to effect the body posture necessary for standardized bodily measures and models as op- inducing the desired experience: whether by timally instrumental or attractive. These models, consulting one's image in a mirror, focusing moreover, reflect and reinforce oppressive social one's gaze on a body part like the tip of the nose hierarchies (as, for example, the North American or the navel, or simply visualizing a body form ideal of tall, lean, blond, blue-eyed bodies obvi- in one's imagination. But, by the same token, a ously serves the privilege of its dominant ethnic representational practice like bodybuilding also groups). utilizes acute awareness of experiential clues Potent as such indictments may be, they all de- (e.g., of optimal fatigue, body alignment, and pend on construing somaesthetics as a theory that full muscle extension) to serve its sculptural reduces the body to an external object-a me- ends of external form. chanical instrument of atomized parts, measur- If the representationdexperiential distinction able surfaces, and standardized norms of beauty. is not logically exclusive, neither does it seem They ignore the body's subject-role as the living entirely exhaustive. A third category of peqor- locus of beautiful, personal experience. But so- mative somaesthetics might be introduced for maesthetics, in its experiential dimension, clearly disciplines devoted primarily to bodily strength refuses to exteriorize the body as an alienated or health, perhaps, for example, to disciplines thing distinct from the active spirit of human ex- like the martial arts, athletics, gymnastics, and perience. Nor does it necessarily impose a fixed weightlifting (which needs to be distinguished set of standardized norms of external measure- from bodybuilding). However, to the extent that ment (e.g., optimal pulse) to assess good so- such performance-oriented practices aim either maesthetic ex~erience.~s at the external exhibition of one's strength and The blindness of culture critics to the somatics health or alternatively at one's inner feelings of of experience is understandable and still wide- those powers, we might assimilate them into ei- spread. For the somaesthetics of representation ther the dominantly representational or experi- remains far more salient and dominant in our ential mode. culture, a culture largely built on the division of Another useful way of classifying somaes- body from spirit, and economically driven by the thetic practices may be in terms of whether they capitalism of conspicuous consumption that is are directed primarily at the individual practi- fueled by the marketing of body images. But tioner herself or instead primarily at others. A precisely for this reason, the field of somaesthet- masseuse or a surgeon, for example, standardly ics, with its essential experiential dimension, works on others, but in doing T'ai chi chu'an or needs more careful, reconstructive attention from cross-country training one is working more on philosophers. one's own body. Clearly the distinction between The representationallexperiential distinction self-directed and other-directed somaesthetics is thus useful in defending somaesthetics from cannot be rigid, since many practices belong to charges that neglect its interior, experienced both. As cosmetic practices of "make-up" can be depth. But the distinction must not be taken as performed on oneself or on others, so in sexual rigidly exclusive. For there is an inevitable com- practices one typically seeks both one's own ex- plementarity of representations and experience, periential pleasures and one's partner's by ma- of outer and inner. As commercial advertising neuvering the bodies of both self and other. rightly reminds us, how we look influences how Moreover, even self-directed somaesthetic work we feel; but also vice versa. Practices like diet- often seems motivated by the desire to please ing or bodybuilding that are initially pursued for others, while other-directed practices (like mas- purposes of attractive representation often end sage) can have its own self-oriented pleasures. up generating special feelings that are then But despite its vagueness (partly due to the in- Shusterman Somaesthetics: A Disciplinary Propo terdependence of the very concepts of self and ies of body norms, ideals, and practices, or psy- other), the distinction between self-directed and chological and ontological theories of mind- other-directed somaesthetics can at least be use- body relations, etc. These various forms of ful in combating the common prejudice that to knowledge, which can illuminate the body's use focus attention on the body implies a selfish re- as a site of beauty, are typically lodged on very treat from the different and often nonintersecting disciplinary branches. Part of the point of proposing somaes- iii. However we classify the different method- thetics as a discipline is to constitute a discipli- ologies of pragmatic somaesthetics, they need to nary branch that structurally links and can fruit- be distinguished from their actual practice. I call fully unify the many body-related studies that this third dimension practical somaesthetics. It are presently pursued in unconnected inquiries is not a matter of producing theories or texts, not and seemingly incommensurable disciplinary even texts that offer pragmatic methods of so- frames. matic care. It is instead all about actually prac- The same argument can be made with respect ticing such care through intelligently disciplined to what I call pragmatic somaesthetics. From body work aimed at somatic self-improvement diet books to yoga manuals, from "make-over" (whether in a representational, experiential, or and exercise videos to handbooks of bodybuild- performative mode). Concerned not with saying ing and guides to psychosomatic therapies, we but with doing, this practical dimension is the find a confusingly vast array of theories for im- most neglected by academic body philosophers, proving the use, health, and experience of our whose commitment to the discursive logos typi- bodies. Linking them together under the disci- cally ends in textualizing the body. For practical plinary rubric of somaesthetics can help us bring somaesthetics, the less said the better, if this a more productive order to this confusing profu- means the more work actually done. But, unfor- sion by encouraging the search for basic com- tunately, it usually means that actual body work mon principles and differentiating criteria in simply gets left altogether out of philosophical terms of which these diverse practices can be practice. Unfortunately, in philosophy, what goes classified and related. In contrast, the kind of ac- without saying typically goes without doing, so tivity I identify as practical sornaesthetics cap- the concrete activity of body work must be em- tures the second sense of disciplinarity-its pur- phatically named as the crucial practical dimen- suit as not mere theory but as actual corporal sion of somaesthetics conceived as a compre- training or practice. hensive philosophical discipline concerned with Where, then, can this threefold, double- self-knowledge and self-care. jointed discipline of somaesthetics find a place in the wider disciplinary matrix of knowledge? Could it find a comfortable nest in an already es- tablished branch of learning or must it struggle Having explained what somaesthetics means by to form its own special limb to climb out on? Its outlining its three main dimensions and its rep- name implies that somaesthetics might best be resentational and experiential modes, I turn to nested as a subdiscipline within the already well- issues raised by the rest of this paper's title. If so- established discipline of aesthetics, which, in maesthetics is introduced as "a disciplinary pro- turn, would be expanded and somewhat trans- posal," what sort of discipline could it be? How formed by the inclusion of somaesthetics. would it, or should it, relate to the traditional dis- To make this option more convincing, I began ciplines of aesthetics and philosophy? by showing how somaesthetics, though omitted The first question is more easily answered. In from Baumgarten's founding program of mod- proposing somaesthetics as a discipline, this ern aesthetics, seems necessary for its full suc- paper deliberately plays on discipline's double cess. In any case, long before Baumgarten's aes- meaning: as a branch of learning or instruction thetics, the appreciation of bodily beauty and and as a corporal form of training or exercise. sensory acuity was central to the concerns we Clearly, the analytic dimension of somaesthetics now call aesthetic, not only among the Greeks could contain systematic bodies of knowledge, and Romans but also in Asian philosophical tra- for example, historical and anthropological stud- ditions.27 This attitude still survives in Western The Journal of Aesthetics and Art Criticism modernity, though it has been largely eclipsed by much the worse for narrow definitions of aes- our dominant idealist aesthetic tradition. Con- thetics! As an open, essentially contested con- sider David Hume (a contemporary of Baum- cept, aesthetics can absorb new topics and prac- garten) and Friedrich Nietzsche. With his nor- tices. Moreover, some of these "imported topics mative notion of "the perfection of every sense," are not really new to the field of aesthetics. Far Hume's insistence on practice as a method for older and grander than the recent interest in sharpening the sensory appreciation required by sports aesthetics, there looms an illustrious tradi- good critics points surely in the direction of so- tion of exploring aesthetics as a key to ethics and maesthetics. So does Nietzsche's celebration of the art of living, a tradition powerfully exempli- the body with his advocacy of "an ever-greater fied in Schiller's Letters on the Aesthetic Educa- spiritualization and multiplication of the senses" tion of Man and in the writings of Kierkegaard, to realize the body's aesthetic potential for life- Nietzsche, and the later Foucault.29 enhancing value.28 Such examples also show A second objection to subsuming somaesthet- that, given the multiplicity of the body's aes- ics as a branch of aesthetics might go as follows: thetic uses and pleasures, there is no reason to If aesthetics is a subdiscipline of philosophy and exclude our tiny eye muscles or invisible taste somaesthetics purports to be a subdiscipline of buds from the domain of somaesthetic exercise, aesthetics, then by the transitivity of subsump- which must not be confined to the brute image of tion, somaesthetics should also be a subdisci- building bulk for bulging biceps. pline of philosophy.30 But though it clearly con- Somaesthetics, then, seems easiest to construe tains philosophy, somaesthetics seems to include as a subdiscipline of aesthetics, a counterpart of too much other stuff to be contained as a philo- already established subdisciplines like "musical sophical subdiscipline. It claims to address not aesthetics," "visual aesthetics," or "environmen- only anthropological, sociological, and historical tal aesthetics," but one more centered on the research on the body, but also physiological and body. psychological research. Moreover, through its Two objections to this modest proposal must, practical dimension, somaesthetics even engages however, be addressed. First, while the other in bodily practices that seem foreign, if not in- subdisciplines seem defined by a specific artistic imical, to the tradition of philosophy: martial genre or a special category of aesthetic objects arts, fashion, cosmetics, bodybuilding, dieting, (e.g., natural and constructed environments), so- etc. If philosophy is defined as theory, then does maesthetics seems to cut across the whole range not somaesthetics' crucial practical dimension of aesthetic genres. This is because it treats the bar its entry as a philosophical subdiscipline? body not only as an object of aesthetic value and To such objections I see two possible re- creation but also as a crucial sensory medium for sponses. One is to argue for a wider conception enhancing our dealings with all other aesthetic of philosophy. Such a conception not only ad- objects and also with matters not standardly aes- mits the valuable role of historical, anthropolog- thetic. We can easily see, for example, how so- ical, sociological, and other empirical science maesthetics' improvement of sensory acuity, for philosophical research, but further insists on muscular movement, and experiential awareness philosophy as more than mere theory, recalling could fruitfully contribute to the understanding the ancient idea of philosophy as an embodied and practice of traditional arts like music, paint- practice, a way of life. The ideal of philosophy ing, and dance (a somaesthetic art par excellence), as informed by all the pertinent sciences and di- and how it could also enhance our appreciation rected at the improved conduct of life may seem of the natural and constructed environments that alien to our scholastic training and professional we navigate and inhabit. Moreover, by address- self-image as specialists of conceptual analysis. ing enterprises not typically taken as aesthetic- Its full achievement may be beyond our powers, not only martial arts, sports, meditative prac- and it surely seems impossible to realize through tices, and psychosomatic therapies, but the core ordinary classroom in~truction.3~But this ideal philosophical tasks of self-knowledge and self- remains a venerable and appealing model of phi- mastery, somaesthetics threatens to burst the losophy, into which somaesthetics could nicely bounds of a narrowly aesthetic discipline. fit as a subdiscipline. There is a blunt reply to this first objection: So There is, of course, another way to admit the Shusterman Somaesthetics: A Disciplinary Proposal very wide range of somaesthetic inquiry and also embrace its concrete performance of bodily practice, while still keeping this discipline as a Some of these important issues can be introduced subdiscipline of aesthetics. We can simply regard by contrasting two twentieth-century philoso- aesthetics as much more than a subdiscipline of phers, John Dewey and Michel Foucault, who philosophy. Such a broad conception of aesthet- are exemplary for working in all three dimen- ics that transcends philosophy by more closely sions of somaesthetics. Prompted by Darwin and engaging the human and natural sciences was in James, Dewey developed a naturalist "emergent" fact advocated by this journal's second (and account of what he called "body-mind." But this longest) editor, Thomas Munro. Arguing repeat- ontological theory was likewise guided by his edly against philosophy's constraining strangle- study of the pragmatic "body-mind" methodol- hold on aesthetics, he sought to create aesthetics ogy of the Alexander Technique, to which as a discipline independent of philosophy, one Dewey devoted several celebratory essays. And with its own "distinct department~."3~By broad- Dewey's commitment to body-mind unity was ening Munro's concept still further, we can con- perhaps most inspired by his concrete practical strue aesthetics as a discipline that also involves exercises in the Alexander Technique, in which instruction in the performance (not merely the ap- he exercised himself for more than twenty years preciation) of arts and other aesthetic practices. If and to which (at the age of almost ninety) he at- it is foreign to most philosophy departments, this tributed his good health and longevity.33 broad conception of aesthetic discipline is farnil- Foucault's avid pursuit of somaesthetics in all iarly at work in other academies--of music, art, its three major branches is no less remarkable dance, and cooking. than Dewey's, though radically different. The Of these two options for nesting somaesthet- analytic genealogist, who showed how "docile ics in aesthetics, which should be favored? As a bodies" were systematically shaped by seem- professional philosopher keen to promote broad ingly innocent body-disciplines to advance cer- and practical conceptions of his discipline, I tain sociopolitical agendas, emerges also as the would prefer absorbing the swell of somaesthet- pragmatic methodologist proposing alternative ics within the philosophical fold, thus enhancing body practices to overcome the repressive ide- the discipline of philosophy. One might also ologies entrenched in our docile bodies. Fore- worry whether aesthetics as an autonomous dis- most among these alternatives were practices of cipline independent of philosophy is institution- consensual sadomasochism, whose experiences, ally sturdy enough to bear the challenge of di- he argued, challenged not only the hierarchy of gesting somaesthetics. the head but the privileging of genital sexuality, Nevertheless, I am content to leave these pre- which in turn privileged heterosexuality. Fou- cise questions of affiliation provisionally open, cault also repeatedly advocated strong "drugs for at least three reasons. As a new, still schematic which can produce very intense pleasures," in- proposal, somaesthetics should not yet let its dis- sisting that they "must become a part of our cul- ciplinary bonds be tied too tightly. It should be t~re."~~Bravely practicing the somaesthetics he allowed enough freedom to grow in the direc- preached, Foucault tested his favored method- tions (and under the larger disciplines) that prove ologies by experimenting on his own flesh and most fruitful for its progress. Secondly, in order with other live bodies, most notably through to develop, somaesthetics must be the collabora- strong drugs and gay sadomasochism. tive work of a community of thinkers and prac- In Practicing Philosophy I probe the limits of titioners, not the pronouncement of an individ- Foucault's favored methods while affirming so- ual voice. That community, not this individual, maesthetic alternatives that he neglects and I will best define its precise disciplinary home and prefer to practice.35 But one can hardly deny the limits. The third reason why I readily leave open value of drugs and consensual sadomasochism such detailed questions of affiliation and demar- for the precise projects of somaesthetics that cation is that there are far more pressing, if not Foucault was personally most concerned with, more interesting, issues to pursue in the field of projects of radical innovation, gay liberation, somaesthetics than the drawing of its precise and his own problematic quest for pleasure. In- boundaries. deed, "different strokes for different folks" af- The Journal of Aesthetics and Art Criticism firms a vernacular wisdom apt for more than With hallucinogenic drugs or vegetarian diet, SIM's disciples. with shaved heads or dreadlocks, with prick To some extent, must not this pluralism be a rings and leather masks or with steroids and sil- maxim not only for somaesthetics but for the icone implants, through piercing or aerobics or whole idea of philosophy as a way of life, a dis- through yogic exercises of pranayama? Are ciplined aesthetic practice whose greatest art- there useful criteria for choosing between the work is our self? If Emerson and.Nietzsche are very different somaesthetic programs on offer? right that each self is essentially unique (the un- Are there any good ways of combining them? repeatable product of myriad contingencies), Why do those philosophically rich and critically should not each self require its own special phi- reflective somaesthetic disciplines that are cen- losophy and body pra~tice?3~Every man," says tral to Asian philosophy remain so foreign to our Thoreau, "is the builder of a temple, called his Western philosophical work? body, to the god he worships, after a style purely These questions suggest only a minute frac- his own, nor can he get off by hammering marble tion of the issues pointedly collected and posed instead. We are all sculptors and painters, and our by somaesthetics as a disciplinary proposal. If material is our own flesh and blood and bones. such issues still lack systematic treatment but are Any nobleness begins to refine a man's features, implied in Baumgarten's original "mission state- any meanness or sensuality to imbrute them."37 ment" of aesthetics, if they are likewise implied But, on the other hand, do not our embodied by the classic idea of philosophy as an embodied selves share significant commonalties of bio- way of life, then somaesthetics deserves to be logical make-up and societal conditioning that named and pursued as a branch of philosophical would allow some interesting generalizations inquiry. The precise place it will eventually take about the values and risks of different somatic in the much wider field of philosophy is not methods? How could philosophy or science (or something we can guarantee at its initial pro- even practical life) be possible without such posal. For such issues depend not only on the generalization? dominant directions that future somaesthetic in- Somaesthetics must reconcile the claims of quiries will take, but also on the changing, essen- bodily difference and freedom of taste with the tially contested field of philosophy itself, with its contrasting claims of objective bodily norms and equally changing and contested subdisciplines. bodily needs that straddle the much contested Initially, however, somaesthetics seems most naturelculture distinction. If it can appeal to no modestly and securely situated within an ex- fixed definition of bodily beauty or pleasure, so- panded discipline of aesthetics. Such an enlarged maesthetics must nonetheless grapple with justi- aesthetics would give more systematic attention fying judgments that certain somatic forms, to the body's crucial roles in aesthetic perception functions, and experience can be better or worse and experience, including the aesthetic dimen- than others. These are thorny problems, but they sions of body therapies, sports, martial arts, cos- should not strike us aestheticians as very pecu- metics, etc., that remain marginalized in academic liar. For they essentially embody the familiar aesthetic theory. But to incorporate somaesthet- theoretical tensions between aesthetic subjectiv- ics' practical dimension, the field of aesthetics ity and normative standards, between individual must also expand its notion of disciplinary atten- taste and sensus communis, that form the heart of tion to actual, hands-on training in specific body modem aesthetics since Hume and Kant. Here practices that aim at somaesthetic improvement. again, somaesthetics remains firmly rooted in Inclusion of such body work may make aesthet- the problematics of traditional aesthetic theory. ics more difficult to teach or practice in the stan- But there are also more practical (and more dard university classroom, but it certainly could existentially pressing) questions of somaesthet- make the field more exciting and absorbing, as it ics that deserve more attention from aesthetic comes to engage more of our embodied selves. philosophers. In the postmodern pluralist confu- Once notoriously condemned for its lifeless sion of our culture, we are steeped in the ideol- "dreariness" of woolly idealism, aesthetics can ogy of lifestyles and saturated with a bewilder- achieve a robust, full-blooded vitality by affirm- ing variety to choose from. How, then, should ing its necessary but neglected link to the living we shape and care for our embodied selves? soma. Somaesthetics affirms this link, not sim- Shusterman Somaesthetics: A Disciplinary Proposal 311 ply by its program (still so schematic and provi- in Seneca's famous remark: "In hoc obnoxio domicilio ani- sional), but even by its very name.38 mus liber habitat. Numquam me caro ista compellet ad metum, numquam ad indignam bono simulationem" ("In this noxious dwelling, the soul lives free. Never shall my RICHARD SHUSTERMAN flesh drive me to feel fear, or to assume any pretence that is Department of Philosophy unworthy of a good man"), Seneca's Epistles, 65:22. "Caro" Temple University is also used in a conventional Latin phrase used to designate Philadelphia, Pennsylvania 19122 someone with contempt-"caro putida" (rotten or putrid flesh). See Harper's Latin Dictionary (New York: Harper, 1907), p. 294. INTERNET: [email protected] 9. Baumgarten originally came from a Pietist background and was. of course. aware of the -ereat risks that earlv En- 1. Michel de Montaigne, "Of Presumption," in The Com- lightenment philosophers still faced if they theorized in ways plete Essays of Montaigne (Stanford University Press, that conflicted with Church doctrine. His philosophical hero, 1965), p. 484. Christian Wolff, was exiled from Halle (where Baumgarten 2. See Richard Shusterman, "Die Sorge um den Korper in studied and later taught), because his doctrines incensed the der heutigen Kultur," in Philosophische Ansichte der Kultur religious leaders there. Texts by Spinoza and his followers, der Modeme, ed. Andreas Kuhlmann (Frankfurt: Fischer, with their heterodox views on God and mind-body unity, 1994), pp. 241-277. were also frequently burned at that time. In short, the domi- 3. J. M. Guyau, Les probl2mes de l'esthe'tique contempo- nantly religious ideological context into which Baumgarten raine (1884), 1lth ed. (Paris: Alcan, 1925), pp. 2G21; cf. the had to introduce aesthetics would have been very intolerant book's English translation: Problems of Contemporary Aes- of philosophies that emphasized the body. thetics (Los Angeles: DeVorss, 1947), p. 23. 10. In the "Introduction" to Practicing Philosophy, I offer 4. See Richard Shusterman, Practicing Philosophy: Prag- some tentative hypotheses concerning the historical reasons matism and the Philosophical Life (New York: Routledge, for philosophy's retreat from a full-bodied art of living into a 1997), pp. 127-129, 166-177, the first English text where I mere academic discipline of theory. The explanations I offer employ the term "somaesthetics." The term was introduced build largely on the work of Pierre Hadot and Michel Fou- in Vor der Interpretation (Vienna: Passagen, 1996), p. 132, cault, but the bulk of my efforts are devoted to exploring which is a revised German translation of my Sous l'interpri- contemporary possibilities and models for practicing philos- ration (Paris: L'tclat, 1994). See also my "Somaesthetics and ophy as an embodied art of living. the Bodymedia Issue," Body and Society 3 (1997): 3349. 11. See Diogenes Laertius, Lives of Eminent Philosophers The somatic was also central to the aesthetics I earlier devel- (Harvard University Press, 1991), vol. 1, pp. 153, 163; Xeno- oped in PragmatistAesthetics: Living Beaut): Rethinking Art phon, Conversations of Socrates (London: Penguin, 1990), (Oxford: Blackwell, 1992), pp. 6-7, 52-53,258-261. p. 172. 5. The idea of somaesthetics has already been ridiculed in 12.Of Diogenes the Cynic it is said: "He would adduce in- the German press. Reviewing Vor der Interpretation in the disputable evidence to show how easily from gymnastic daily Frankfurter Allgemeine Zeitung (November 28, 1996, training we arrive at virtue." Even the pre-Socratic Cleobu- p. lo), the reviewer distortively lampooned somaesthetics' lus, a sage "distinguished for strength and beauty, and initi- notion of an embodied philosophical discipline as "some- ated in Egyptian philosophy," "advised people to practice thing like whipping oneself while reading Kant, mountain- bodily exercise" in their pursuit of wisdom. The citations in climbing while reading Nietzsche, and doing breathing exer- this paragraph come from Diogenes Laertius, Lives of Emi- cises while reading Heidegger." This sort of exercising while nent Philosophers (Cambridge: Harvard University Press, reading was, of course, nothing like what I described or 1991), vol. 1, pp. 91,95, 153, 221; vol. 2, pp. 71, 215. meant by somaesthetics. 13.Yasuo Yuasa, The Body: Towardan Eastern Mind-Body 6. Baumgarten first used the term in section 11 6 of his 1735 Theory (SUNY Press, 1987), p. 25. In Yuasa's later book, The doctoral thesis, Meditiationes philosophicae de nonnullis ad Body, Self-cultivation, and Ki-Energy (SUNY Press, 1993), poem pertintibus. After giving a course of lectures on aes- the term shugyo is translated as "self-cultivation." Derived thetics in 1742 and 1749 at the University of Frankfurt-on- from combining the two Chinese characters that respectively the-Oder, he published a long treatise (in Latin) entitled Aes- stand for "mastery" and "practice," shugyo literally means to thetic~in 1750, complemented in 1758 by a shorter second "master a practice," but the idea that this requires self- part. My citations from Baumgarten are from the bilingual cultivation and self-mastery is implicit and essential. (Latin-German) abridged edition of this work, Alexander 14. Having given a detailed philosophical analysis of these Baumgarten, Theoretische Asthetikc Die grundlengenden practices in "Die Sorge um den Korper in der heutigen Kul- Abschnitte aus der "Aesthetica" (1750/58), trans. H. R. tur," I offer here only a small sample of important primary Schweizer (Hamburg: Felix Meiner, 1988). The English sources. F. M. Alexander, Constructive Conscious Control of translations are mine. Subsequent references will be noted the Individual (New York: Dutton, 1924), and The Use of the parenthetically in my text. Self (New York: Dutton, 1932); Moshe Feldenkrais, Aware- 7. There exists, however, an English translation of Baum- ness Through Movement (New York: Harper Collins, 1977), garten's doctoral thesis and first book, cited above. Trans- and The Potent Self(New York: Harper Collins, 1992); and lated and edited by Karl Aschenbrenner and W. B. Hoelther, Alexander Lowen, Bioenergetics (New York: Penguin, it bears the English title Reflections on Poetry (University of 1975). California Press, 1954). 15. Diogenes Laertius, vol. I, p. 71 ;cf. vol. I, p. 221; vol. 8. "Caro" is often used in negative contrast to the soul, as 2, p. 119. The Journal of Aesthetics and Art Criticism

16. Pleasure, of course, does not exhaust the valuable feel- thetics that has been so influential through the work of ings that somaesthetics, like aesthetics, should examine and Ananda Coomaraswamy. achieve. But in challenging pleasure's monopoly of all value, 28. See David Hume, "Of the Standard of Taste," in Es- we should not trivialize pleasure's worth and minimize its says Moral, Political, and Literary, ed. E. F. Miller (Indi- depth and range of varieties. For a debate on this issue, see anapolis: Liberty Classics, 1985), p. 236. For a recent study Alexander Nehamas, "Richard Shusterman on Pleasure and of Hume's essay that greatly illuminates this point of per- Aesthetic Experience" (and my response) in The Journal of ceptual acuity, see James R. Shelley, "Hume and the Nature Aesthetics and Art Criticism 56 (1998): 49-53. of Taste," The Journal of Aesthetics and Art Criticism 56 17. See, for example, Friedrich Nietzsche, The Will to (1998): 29-38, the 1997 John Fisher Memorial Prize Essay. Power (New York: Vintage, 1968); Maurice Merleau-Ponty, The Nietzsche citation is from The Will to Power (New York: The Phenomenology of Perception (London: Routledge, Vintage, 1968), section 820, p. 434. Merleau-Ponty is an- 1962); and Owen Flanagan, The Science of the Mind, 2nd. other important philosopher who insists on the body's role in ed. (MIT Press, 199 1). aesthetic perception and artistic creation. See his account of 18.While supewenience is a concept familiar to readers of painting in "Eye and Mind," in Maurice Merleau-Ponty, The this journal, that of supersets may require an explanation: Primacy of Perception (Northwestern University Press, "Supersets are two [or more bodybuilding] exercises per- 1964), pp. 159-190. formed in a row without stopping." For more details, see 29. A useful introductory group of articles and bibliogra- Arnold Schwarzenegger, Encyclopedia of Modem Body- phy for the aesthetics of sport can be found in Sport and the building (New York: Simon and Schuster, 1985), p. 161. Body: A Philosophical Symposium, 2nd ed., eds. E. W. Ger- 19. See, for example, Michel Foucault, Discipline and ber and W. J. Morgan (Philadelphia: Lea and Febiger, 1979). Punish (New York: Vintage, 1979); The History of Sexuality, For a fine genealogical study of philosophy's tradition as an vol. 1, An Introduction (New York: Vintage, 1980); vol. 2, art of living in Socrates, Plato, Montaigne, Nietzsche, and The Use of Pleasure (New York: Vintage, 1986); and vol. 3, Foucault, see Alexander Nehamas, The Art of Living (Uni- The Care of the Self(New York: Vintage, 1988); and Pierre versity of California Press, 1998). It is also worth mention- Bourdieu, The Logic of Practice (Stanford University Press, ing the recent work of Wolfgang Welsch, which advocates, 1990), and "La Connaissance par Corps" in Meditations through the concept of aisthesis, a very broad notion of aes- Pascaliennes (Paris: Seuil, 1997). thetics that is not primarily centered on art. See, for example, 20. I am not, of course, claiming that disciplines like yoga "Aesthetics Beyond Aesthetics" in his Undoing Aesthetics and zazen (or those of Feldenkrais and Alexander) are pur- (London: Sage, 1997), pp. 78-102. sued entirely or primarily for their aesthetic experiences. But 30. It would, of course, be a philosophical subdiscipline on they do in fact underline their aesthetic dimensions and ben- a different level from that of the philosophical subdiscipline efits. See, for example, the ancient Hatha Yoga Pradipika by of aesthetics which subsumes it; somaesthetics could thus Svatmarama Swami, trans. Pancham Sinh (Allabad, India, perhaps more precisely be designated as a sub-subdiscipline 1915), which speaks of how "a yogi's body becomes divine, of philosophy. I would like to thank an anonymous referee of glowing, healthy, and emits a divine smell," so that he or she the JAAC whose critical comments on an earlier draft of my "becomes next to the God of Love in beauty" (pp. 23, 57). essay were very helpful on several points, but especially in See also Dogen's "Principles of Seated Meditation" in Carl prompting me to consider more carefully the question of dis- Bielefeldt, DogenS Manuals of Zen Meditation (University ciplinary affiliation discussed in section V. of California Press, 1988). For Feldenkrais and Alexander, 31. Just imagine what would happen to the philosophy see the references in note 14. professor who asked his seminar in somaesthetics to study 21. See Max Horkheimer and Theodor Adorno, Dialectic Wilhelm Reich's body therapy by lying down in class and of Enlightenment (New York: Continuum, 1986), pp. 232, practicing the Reichian orgasm reflex. Would asking stu- 233. dents to lift weights or perform yoga postures and breathing 22. Ibid., pp. 233-234. exercises be much easier? Even asking them to dance or sing 23. Ibid., p. 234. would seem a shock to today's academic philosophical pos- 24. Ibid., p. 235. ture of pure theory. Ancient philosophical schools, like later 25. This is not to say that experiential somaesthetics can religious orders, were often very different in this regard, ap- present no norms or ideals: the famed "runner's high" and plying the institutional discipline of instructing disciples in a bodybuilder's "pump" could be seen as posing standards of far more holistic sense. For critique of the argument that phi- experiential success. losophy cannot usefully treat somatic experiences and prac- 26. Shannon Sullivan makes interesting use of this distinc- tices because it is confined, by its disciplinary definition, to tion in applying my concept of somaesthetics to integrate Ni- the linguistic realm, see Practicing Philosophy, chap. 6. etzschean views of embodiment with feminist concerns and 32. See Thomas Munro, "Aesthetics and Philosophy in with what she regards as the more dominantly other-directed American Colleges," The Journal ofAesthetics and Art Crit- orientation of female body practices. See her inaugural lec- icism 4 (1946): 185-187; and further his "Society and Soli- ture at Pennsylvania State University (October 1998), "Niet- tude in Aesthetics," The Journal of Aesthetics and Art Criti- zsche's Somaesthetics: A Discipline for Women?'as yet un- cism 3 (1945): 3342, and "Aesthetics as Science: Its published. Development in America," The Journal ofAesthetics and Art 27. For a helpful account of how classical Indian aesthet- Criticism 9 (1951): 161-207. The JAAC (and its earlier in- ics emphasizes the body and its sensuous pleasures, see ternational models, which pursued aesthetics outside nar- Rekha Jhanji, The Sensuous in Art: Reflections on Indian rowly philosophical perspectives) played an important role Aesthetics (Delhi: Motilal Banarsidass, 1989), a book that re- in Munro's quest for the autonomy of aesthetics from philos- futes the very transcendental-religious image of Indian aes- ophy. For a fuller explanation of Munro's strategies of de- Shusterman Somaesthetics: A Disciplinary Proposal 313 ploying this journal to erect aesthetics as an independent Shusterman, "The Self as a Work of Art," The Nation, field and to ensconce America as its prime locus, see Lydia June 30, 1997, pp. 25-28. Goehr, "The Institutionalization of a Discipline: A Retro- 36. For more details on this theme in Emerson and Niet- spective of The Journal of Aesthetics and Art Criticism and zsche, see Richard Shusterman, "Styles et styles de vie: orig- the American Society for Aesthetics, 1939-1992," and inaliti, authenticiti, et dkdoublement du moi," Littirature Richard Shusterman, "Aesthetics Between Nationalism and 105 (1997): 102-109. Internationalism," both in The Journal of Aesthetics and Art 37. Henry David Thoreau, Walden, in The Portable Criticism 51 (1993): 99-121 and 157-167, respectively. Thoreau (New York: Viking, 1969), p. 468. 33. For more details on Dewey's somatic theories and 38. New names have their efficacy for reorganizing and practices and his relationship to Alexander, see my Practic- thus reanimating old insights, as William James shrewdly ing Philosophy, chaps. 1,6. recognized in defining pragmatism as "a new name for some 34. Michel Foucault, Foucault Live (New York: Semio- old ways of thinking," a definition that aptly fits my notion text(e), 1996). p. 384; cf. p. 378. of somaesthetics. 35. See Practicing Philosophy, chap. 1, and also Richard http://www.jstor.org

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You have printed the following article: Somaesthetics: A Disciplinary Proposal Richard Shusterman The Journal of Aesthetics and Art Criticism, Vol. 57, No. 3. (Summer, 1999), pp. 299-313. Stable URL: http://links.jstor.org/sici?sici=0021-8529%28199922%2957%3A3%3C299%3ASADP%3E2.0.CO%3B2-W

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[Endnotes]

16 Richard Shusterman on Pleasure and Aesthetic Experience Alexander Nehamas The Journal of Aesthetics and Art Criticism, Vol. 56, No. 1. (Winter, 1998), pp. 49-51. Stable URL: http://links.jstor.org/sici?sici=0021-8529%28199824%2956%3A1%3C49%3ARSOPAA%3E2.0.CO%3B2-L

28 Hume and the Nature of Taste James R. Shelley The Journal of Aesthetics and Art Criticism, Vol. 56, No. 1. (Winter, 1998), pp. 29-38. Stable URL: http://links.jstor.org/sici?sici=0021-8529%28199824%2956%3A1%3C29%3AHATNOT%3E2.0.CO%3B2-L

32 Aesthetics and Philosophy in American Colleges Thomas Munro The Journal of Aesthetics and Art Criticism, Vol. 4, No. 3. (Mar., 1946), pp. 180-187. Stable URL: http://links.jstor.org/sici?sici=0021-8529%28194603%294%3A3%3C180%3AAAPIAC%3E2.0.CO%3B2-1

32 The Intent and Tone of Mr. I. A. Richards Katharine Gilbert The Journal of Aesthetics and Art Criticism, Vol. 3, No. 11/12. (1945), pp. 29-48. Stable URL: http://links.jstor.org/sici?sici=0021-8529%281945%293%3A11%2F12%3C29%3ATIATOM%3E2.0.CO%3B2-Y

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32 Aesthetics as Science: Its Development in America Thomas Munro The Journal of Aesthetics and Art Criticism, Vol. 9, No. 3. (Mar., 1951), pp. 161-207. Stable URL: http://links.jstor.org/sici?sici=0021-8529%28195103%299%3A3%3C161%3AAASIDI%3E2.0.CO%3B2-G

NOTE: The reference numbering from the original has been maintained in this citation list.