Selves and Other Texts: The Case for Cultural Realism Book

Extending his investigations into the nature and logic of art and history in the cultural world, Joseph Margolis here offers a sustained account of how selves and the cultural phenomena they generate (language, history, action, art) can be viewed as just as "real" as the physical nature from which they are emergent, while not being reducible to it. The book starts off with a review of prominent philosophies of art over the second half of the 20th century, focusing especially on Beardsley, Goodman and Danto, so as to highlight the need for carefully distinguishing between the metaphysical and epistemological features of physical nature and human culture. The second part of the book builds on the first part's analyses of artworks to propose a theory of selves as "self-interpreting texts". The book aims to develop new ways of understanding the conceptual inseparability of our analysis of physical nature and our analysis of ourselves.Read More