Tragic Beauty in Whitehead and Japanese Aesthetics (Contemporary Whitehead Studies)

"The present volume endeavors to make a contribution to contemporary Whitehead studies by clarifying his axiological process metaphysics, including his theory of values, concept of aesthetic experience, and doctrine of beauty, along with his philosophy of art, literature and poetry. Moreover, it establishes an east-west dialogue focusing on how Alfred North Whitehead’s process aesthetics can be clarified by the traditional Japanese Buddhist sense of evanescent beauty. As this east-west dialogue unfolds it is shown that there are many striking points of convergence between Whitehead’s process aesthetics and the traditional Japanese sense of beauty. However, the work especially focuses on two of Whitehead’s aesthetic categories, including the penumbral beauty of darkness and the tragic beauty of perishability, while further demonstrating parallels with the two Japanese aesthetic categories of yûgen and aware. It is clarified how both Whitehead and the Japanese tradition have articulated a poetics of evanescence that celebrates the transience of aesthetic experience and the ephemerality of beauty. Finally it is argued that both Whitehead and Japanese tradition develop an aesthetics of beauty as perishability culminating in a religio-aesthetic vision of tragic beauty and its reconciliation in the supreme ecstasy of peace or nirvana." -- Provided by publisher Machine generated contents note: -- pt. I Primacy of Aesthetics -- -- 1. Primacy of Aesthetics in Japanese Culture -- -- 2. Whitehead's Aesthetics: Early Works -- -- 3. Whitehead's Aesthetics: Process and Reality -- -- 4. Whitehead's Aesthetics: Later Works -- -- 5. Whitehead's Retrieval of Beauty -- -- 6. The Problem of Aestheticism -- -- pt. II Beauty as Aesthetic Quality -- -- 7. Whitehead's Metaphysics of Aesthetic Quality -- -- 8. Aesthetic Quality in East-West Perspective -- -- 9. Whitehead's Doctrine of Aesthetic Qualities as Eternal Objects -- -- 10. Beauty as Synaesthesia in Whitehead, Hartshorne, and Japanese Aesthetics -- -- pt. III A Whiteheadian Perspective on Yugen and Aware in Japanese Aesthetics -- -- 11. The "Penumbral Beauty" of Darkness and Shadows in Whitehead's Process Aesthetics -- -- 12. Yugen as the Beauty of Darkness in Japanese Aesthetics -- -- 13. A Whiteheadian Perspective on Yugen in Japanese Aesthetics -- -- 14. Time as Discontinuous Continuity in Whitehead, Dogen, and Nishida -- -- pt. IV A Whiteheadian Perspective on Yugen and Aware in Japanese Aesthetics -- -- 15. Tragic Beauty in Whitehead's Process Aesthetics -- -- 16. Aware in Japanese Aesthetics -- -- 17. A Whiteheadian Perspective on Aware in Japanese Aesthetics -- -- 18. Tragic Beauty and Peace in Whitehead and Japanese Aesthetics. This book examines Alfred North Whitehead's process aesthetics focusing especially on two categories, including the penumbral beauty of darkness and the tragic beauty of perishability, while further establishing parallels with the Japanese sense of evanescent beauty as yûgen and aware. It clarifies how both Whitehead and Japanese tradition develop an aesthetics of beauty as perishability culminating in a religio-aesthetic vision of tragic beauty and its reconciliation in the supreme ecstasy of peace