Interview 67: Richard Shusterman on somaesthetics and the Middle Way

We are joined by the philosopher Richard Shusterman, the professor of philosophy at Florida Atlantic University. He’s the author of several books including Practicing Philosophy: Pragmatism and the Philosophical Life, Body Consciousness and Thinking through the Body. He’s also travelled widely and is arguably something of a polymath having held appointments in other disciplines in the humanities. For example, he taught comparative literature in Israel , he’s been the Visiting Research Professor in Aesthetics in Hiroshima, Japan and he was an associate of the École des Hautes Études in Sciences Sociales in Paris. He’s also a professional practitioner of the Feldenkrais method and he’s perhaps most known for his contributions to aesthetics and the emerging field of somaesthetics and this is what we’re going to be talking about today.