Abstract
This chapter introduces the body and its potential role in understanding aesthetics. Traditionally, the body has played a negligible role in academic research. Instead, prominence has been given to the mind, whilst the body has been relegated to a supporting (sometime invisible) static object. The argument made here is that the mobility and sensual capabilities of the body provides an essential means of understanding aesthetics in everyday life. The chapter also introduces the key term of intentionality and compares this with the notion of disinterestedness found in fine art. We will return to the contribution of intentionality on a number of occasions throughout the rest of the text. This chapter also provides two essential lists—firstly we reproduce Mark Johnson’s five interwoven dimensions of human embodiment and later we provide an introduction and discussion, with regards to dress, of our collective senses .
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King, I.W. (2017). The Body. In: The Aesthetics of Dress. SpringerBriefs in Philosophy. Springer, Cham. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-319-54322-2_3
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DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-319-54322-2_3
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