The Aesthetics of Everyday Life

This imaginative new collection explores the aesthetic qualities of human relationships, sports, taste, smell, food, and natural and built environments. With essays from philosophers working in a variety of traditions in the humanities and social sciences, this collection offers an important contribution to and expansion of traditional aesthetics.

The aesthetics of everyday life, originally developed by Henri Lefebvre and other modernist theorists, is an extension of traditional aesthetics, usually confined to works of art. It is not limited to the study of humble objects but is rather concerned with all of the undeniably aesthetic experiences that arise when one contemplates objects or performs acts that are outside the traditional realm of aesthetics. It is concerned with the nature of the relationship between subject and object. One significant aspect of everyday aesthetics is environmental aesthetics, whether constructed, as a building, or manipulated, as a landscape. Others, also discussed in the book, include sport, weather, smell and taste, and food.