Sexuality and/as Art, Power, and Reconciliation. Preface to symposium on Richard Shusterman’s "Ars Erotica: Sex and Somaesthetics in the Classical Arts of Love"

In this article I investigate Richard Shusterman's philosophical inquiry into sexuality in his recent book "Ars Erotica: Sex and Somaesthetics in the Classical Arts of Love". I first offer a reconstruction and interpretation of Shusterman's philosophical path, from pragmatist aesthetics to somaesthetics. Then, I explain how and why somaesthetics arrived at including sexuality among its topics, on the basis of its complex and sophisticated conception of the human body. Finally, I outline a comparison between Shusterman's philosophical account of sexuality and Foucault's, Marcuse's and Adorno's.