Nick Riggle – författare

As the sunset swings into view, you think, "That's beautiful." You take a bite of cake and you think, "Wow, that's sweet"-maybe too sweet. You hear that new song and it blows you away. You play it for your friends. The novel is wonderful, the movie disappoints, the dress looked better in the store. Aesthetic Life and Why It Matters offers three new answers to Socrates's great question about how we should live that focus on the place of aesthetic engagement in well-being. Three philosophers offer their perspectives on how aesthetic commitments move us through the world and shape our well-being, our sense of self, and our connections to others. Aesthetic engagement is a site for achievement, it cultivates individuality within a context of community, and it satisfies a hunger for exploring our differences. A closing dialogue between the authors probes some flash points in thinking about value: disagreement, subjectivism, ethnocentrism, fads and fashions, and ideology critique. Written in appealing prose, with vivid examples, a comprehensive introduction, and suggestions for further reading, the book is designed as a self-contained module in aesthetics for introductory courses in philosophy.

As the sunset swings into view, you think, "That''s beautiful." You take a bite of cake and you think, "Wow, that''s sweet"-maybe too sweet. You hear that new song and it blows you away. You play it for your friends. The novel is wonderful, the movie disappoints, the dress looked better in the store. Aesthetic Life and Why It Matters offers three new answers to Socrates''s great question about how we should live that focus on the place of aesthetic engagement in well-being. Three philosophers offer their perspectives on how aesthetic commitments move us through the world and shape our well-being, our sense of self, and our connections to others. Aesthetic engagement is a site for achievement, it cultivates individuality within a context of community, and it satisfies a hunger for exploring our differences. A closing dialogue between the authors probes some flash points in thinking about value: disagreement, subjectivism, ethnocentrism, fads and fashions, and ideology critique. Written in appealing prose, with vivid examples, a comprehensive introduction, and suggestions for further reading, the book is designed as a self-contained module in aesthetics for introductory courses in philosophy.

As the sunset swings into view, you think, "That''s beautiful." You take a bite of cake and you think, "Wow, that''s sweet"-maybe too sweet. You hear that new song and it blows you away. You play it for your friends. The novel is wonderful, the movie disappoints, the dress looked better in the store. Aesthetic Life and Why It Matters offers three new answers to Socrates''s great question about how we should live that focus on the place of aesthetic engagement in well-being. Three philosophers offer their perspectives on how aesthetic commitments move us through the world and shape our well-being, our sense of self, and our connections to others. Aesthetic engagement is a site for achievement, it cultivates individuality within a context of community, and it satisfies a hunger for exploring our differences. A closing dialogue between the authors probes some flash points in thinking about value: disagreement, subjectivism, ethnocentrism, fads and fashions, and ideology critique. Written in appealing prose, with vivid examples, a comprehensive introduction, and suggestions for further reading, the book is designed as a self-contained module in aesthetics for introductory courses in philosophy.

According to a powerful tradition inspired by Hume and Kant and running through the 20th century, aesthetic life is the life of an individual in pursuit of valuable experience. The linchpin of this tradition, aesthetic hedonism, stood nearly unchallenged alongside an array of complementary views about how we discuss, pursue, engage with and respond to aesthetic value. In the early twenty-first century, philosophers ramped up their criticisms of, and then began to replace, these traditional views. Nick Riggle has been working at the forefront of this effort, zeroing in on the defects of traditional aesthetics and replacing it with a framework that he argues is more vibrant and truer to aesthetic life.Understanding Aesthetic Life collects essays that Riggle has published in this ongoing effort, from reflections on the aims and ideals of aesthetic life, to investigations of the personal and social power of aesthetic value. Riggle critiques the traditional emphasis on pleasure, disinterest, individualism, and connoisseurship in favor of a view that centers style, love, community, freedom, and engagement. Together, these conceptually connected essays—along with a newly written introduction—gradually construct, and illustrate the power of, Riggle's distinctively communal theory of aesthetic life built around the social cultivation of aesthetic freedom and individuality.

As the sunset swings into view, you think, "That's beautiful." You take a bite of cake and you think, "Wow, that's sweet"-maybe too sweet. You hear that new song and it blows you away. You play it for your friends. The novel is wonderful, the movie disappoints, the dress looked better in the store. Aesthetic Life and Why It Matters offers three new answers to Socrates's great question about how we should live that focus on the place of aesthetic engagement in well-being. Three philosophers offer their perspectives on how aesthetic commitments move us through the world and shape our well-being, our sense of self, and our connections to others. Aesthetic engagement is a site for achievement, it cultivates individuality within a context of community, and it satisfies a hunger for exploring our differences. A closing dialogue between the authors probes some flash points in thinking about value: disagreement, subjectivism, ethnocentrism, fads and fashions, and ideology critique. Written in appealing prose, with vivid examples, a comprehensive introduction, and suggestions for further reading, the book is designed as a self-contained module in aesthetics for introductory courses in philosophy.

In this lively treatise, pro-skater-turned-philosopher Nick Riggle presents a theory of awesomeness (and its opposite, suckiness) that’s both sharply illuminating and more timely than ever   “Nick Riggle’s fun book is ‘awesome’ by its own definition. But don’t miss its profound ambition, which is to show how philosophy unearths the structure of ordinary language, defines the meaning of life in routine business, and poses the question of how best to live.” —Aaron James, author of Assholes: A Theory   We all know people who are awesome and people who suck, but what do we really mean by these terms? Have you ever been chill or game? Do you rock or rule? If so, then you’re tapped into the ethics of awesomeness. Awesome people excel at creating social openings that encourage expressions of individuality and create community. And if you’re a cheapskate, self-promoter, killjoy, or douchebag, you’re the type of person who shuts social openings down. Put more simply: You suck.   From street art to folk singers, Proust to the great etiquette writer Emily Post, President Obama to former Los Angeles Dodger Glenn Burke, Riggle draws on pop culture, politics, history, and sports to explore the origins of awesome, and delves into the nuances of what it means to suck and why it’s so important to strive for awesomeness. An accessible and entertaining lens for navigating the ethics of our time, On Being Awesome provides a new and inspiring framework for understanding ourselves and creating meaningful connections in our everyday lives.

You didn't choose to live this life, in this body, in these conditions-this delicate and difficult life. Yet when you consider that your existence is fleeting, an inspired sense of urgency can spring forth. Say you often hike with a friend. One day, they propose that you skydive instead. You're wavering, and they insist:?Come?on. You only live once! And soon you're flying through the air. Why embrace a life you did not choose?In?This Beauty, philosopher Nick Riggle explores the beauty of being alive by investigating the things we say to inspire ourselves and each other: seize the day, treat yourself, you only live once. These clichés are at best vague, at worst stupid. They imply that you should do something wild with your life because your life is precious, a little like saying you should go swimming with your grandfather's watch because it is irreplaceable.Drawing on insights from aesthetics and his experiences as a professional skater and new father, he develops the thought that beauty-the beauty of this day, this body, this moment, these people-can make life worth embracing, worth engaging with and amplifying as beautiful. Insightful and deeply humane, This Beauty is a searching inquiry into the mystery of life's beauty and a call to create and share it.