Inroduction: The turn to aesthetics: An interdisciplinary exchange of ideas in applied and philosophical aesthetics

Abstract

This book has grown from a shared interest in aesthetics between David Torevell (Theology and Religious Studies) and myself (Sports Studies) and stems from early discussions informed by our different subject perspectives. To some degree this may account for the unusual alliance of topics presented here, however, in this finished product the range of approaches to aesthetics goes way beyond anything we envisaged at the start and is all the more interesting for that, we think. For about a year our “aesthetics meetings” were always lively and stimulating, it being most enjoyable to find common ground and challenges to aesthetic understanding from these different angles. We planned various publications to share our enthusiasm for applying aesthetics in these ‘new’ ways. The meetings were always great fun but sometimes unproductive. Until – David conjured up the phrase “The Turn to Aesthetics” as a title for a conference and invited Peter Lamarque to be the opening keynote speaker. From this point forward and with growing enthusiasm we optimistically put out a call for abstracts, but not really knowing what the response would be like. This book is representative of that response which I hope reflects the spirit, diversity, specialism and shared interest of the speakers from that conference event.