Why Philosophy? Sherri Irvin
Aesthetics from everyday encounters to social hierarchies
What is philosophy to you?
I like the personal way this question is framed. In thinking about what philosophy is, I’m always mindful of Kristie Dotson’s “How Is This Paper Philosophy?”, which highlights the fact that narrow conceptions of the subject matter or methodology of philosophy can be—and have been—profoundly exclusionary.
I see philosophy as an intellectual orientation of deep questioning, and a disposition to use the many tools available to us—what we read, what we experience and observe in the world, the wisdom our elders and communities share with us, the expertise of scientists, and our own reasoning and intuition—to seek answers to deep questions. Just as there are many ways to use these tools, there are many kinds of philosophical projects and many ways to do philosophy that are interesting and worthwhile.
How were you first introduced to philosophy?
When I started college, I was very interested in fiction writing, but I didn’t think that was a real job. I thought maybe I should plan on law school. I didn’t know what philosophy was, but I had heard that it was a good pre-law major, so I took Introduction to Philosophy my first semester. There were about 300 students in the class, but I loved it and sat in the front row (where I sometimes feel asleep because I was tired, but never because I wasn’t interested). The philosophical way of thinking through difficult issues resonated with me. The next semester, the same professor, J. Christopher Maloney, was teaching an advanced Philosophy of Mind class. He gave me permission to take it even though I didn’t meet the prerequisites, since I had gotten an A in Intro. He became an important mentor for me.
How do you practice philosophy today?
I specialize in aesthetics and philosophy of art. A lot of my work has been in two main areas: philosophy of contemporary art and the aesthetics of everyday life. I like to think philosophically about social practices, and my work often involves data from such practices: for my work on contemporary art I have interviewed artists, curators, and conservators and reviewed the object files for artworks in museums, and in everyday aesthetics I often look at data from the social sciences.
I enjoy the fact that philosophy allows me to be intellectually nimble: I can delve deeply into a topic like contemporary art, then shift gears to thinking about appearance-based compliments, and along the way take detours into topics like how to interpret contemporary poetry that uses language in non-standard ways.
What is a philosophical issue that is important to you?
I’m very interested in how we encounter each other’s embodiment, and the way that our responses to other embodied persons can involve respect and recognition or can do harm. I’m intrigued by how everyday interactions that seem benign or even positive can produce a complicated mix of effects. Right now, I’m thinking about this in relation to appearance-based compliments: empirical results show that they tend to make people feel good in the short term, but they can also increase our tendency to scan our bodies for flaws and defects. Complimenting promotes warm relationships but also serves disciplinary functions of steering people (especially women) toward compliance with norms that are intertwined with social hierarchies. I’m considering whether and how we might revise our complimenting practices to preserve their positive role in relationships while diminishing their harmful effects.
What books, podcasts, or other media have stood out to you as a philosopher?
For thinking about the role of aesthetics in everyday life and well-being, Yuriko Saito’s books Everyday Aesthetics and Aesthetics of the Familiar and Nick Riggle’s This Beauty: A Philosophy of Being Alive.
For thinking about aesthetics, racialization, and resistance to racial hierarchy, Paul C. Taylor’s Black Is Beautiful: A Philosophy of Black Aesthetics.
For thinking about the positive aesthetic role played by disability, Tobin Siebers' Disability Aesthetics.
For thinking about the role that aesthetic encounters with embodiment have in constituting relationships of respect or disrespect, Rosemarie Garland-Thomson’s Staring: How We Look, George Yancy’s Black Bodies, White Gazes, and Kate Manne’s Unshrinking: How to Face Fatphobia.
For thinking about the fact that one and the same object can be seen to have different aesthetic values depending on the lens through which we attend to it, Matt Strohl’s Why It’s OK to Love Bad Movies.
Sherri Irvin is Presidential Research Professor of Philosophy at the University of Oklahoma and Vice President of the American Society for Aesthetics. She is author of Immaterial: Rules in Contemporary Art (Oxford, 2022) and editor of Body Aesthetics (Oxford, 2016). She believes aesthetics holds the key to understanding many aspects of our social world. She is currently working on a book for a general audience with the working title So Nice! How Compliments Harm and How to Fix Them.
Web site: https://www.ou.edu/cas/philosophy/people/faculty/sherri-irvin
Open access versions of many of her publications are available here: https://philpeople.org/profiles/sherri-irvin
Thank you, Céline, for introducing us to Sherri Irvin. I appreciated the invitation to reflect on the aesthetics of everyday life. The excerpt below prompted my subsequent Agreement, Question and Wonderment:
"I’m thinking about this in relation to appearance-based compliments: empirical results show that they tend to make people feel good in the short term, but they can also increase our tendency to scan our bodies for flaws and defects. Complimenting promotes warm relationships but also serves disciplinary functions of steering people (especially women) toward compliance with norms that are intertwined with social hierarchies. I’m considering whether and how we might revise our complimenting practices to preserve their positive role in relationships while diminishing their harmful effects."
W-"empirical results show"-- I find this sort of reference to unidentified sources tabloid manipulative and sound-bite dismissive of readers' entitlement to know from where the referred-to data is derived. Whose observation, experience, or experiments? How large are the samples? Representative of whom?
A-Yes, I agree that, from infancy onward, compliments are overtly, covertly, and incessantly used to "steer people toward compliance with norms that are intertwined with social hierarchies." I intentionally deleted "(especially women)" as I suspect half the population would disagree with that exclusionary phrase, including every boy child who grew up to become a female person. "Good boy" is no less a manipulative tool than is "good girl."
Q-What I find curiously missing from this discussion is the reflection upon the the speaker's own irresistible urge to remark at all about another person's physical appearance. To first ask oneself "Why do I feel an impulse to comment?" "What do I want this person to give back to me for my acknowledgment? A smile? A purchase? Reciprocal confirmation that I'm a 'good/pretty girl', too?" If we feel admiration for another, feel anything at all in response to another's way of showing up, why not simply hold them in quiet esteem, and hold our tongue?