Books published by Mimesis International

At the end of the last century, the so-called "new technologies" started to question the process of design, production, sales and consumption through a radical change, which today re-defines many concepts both in industry and every-day life. The notion of "size" ¿ a cross-cutting term in the cultural and creative sector ¿ has gone through a phase of crisis from which it is now re-emerging, enriched with new meanings and possibilities. To re-define this complex term, the authors of the book have observed the path of audiovisual products and social media, fashion, everyday objects, architectures and cities, and identified in each of these fields elements of continuity, breaking points with the past as well as future alternatives. In this collection of essays, the authors adopt an interdisciplinary approach overcoming the boundaries of their discipline. Through different perspectives this volume presents and develops new paradigms that explain the complexities of the contemporary era and its new "sizes".

Since the middle of the twentieth century, visual art has displayed an ambivalent nature, torn between the poles of abstractionism and realism, conceptual and postmodern, classicist nostalgia and the violent provocation for its own sake. This essay builds an argument in favour of tracing a different path for the visual arts, in which art might be able to recover its fullness and universality. The artists analysed in this volume ¿ starting with Hopper and Balthus, singled out as precursors ¿ appear to be following this shared path, even though they belong to different generations. Perhaps for this reason, they have for the most part been misunderstood by their contemporary critics. As in the art of Ancient Greece or the Middle Ages abstract tensions that intensify the visual field can bring simple figures to life, radically changing their meaning. This is a ¿sunniness¿ that is akin to the Claritas with which Medieval scholastics indicated the splendour of the works of their times. We¿ll have to undertake a tireless process of exercising our perceptions, if we wish to be able to grasp its basic aesthetic quality.

Socialization in childhood and at a young age is marked, not only by measurable factors such as age, sex, ethnic group, religion or parents¿ income, but also by variables such as depression, aggressiveness, inner calm or serenity. It makes all the difference whether a child experiences during their development an atmosphere of acceptance, gladness and emotional warmth, or one of depreciation, indifference and emotional coldness. The atmosphere in which a child is brought up shapes them as people, at least as much as the measurable factors of their social context. By discussing in detail how the atmosphere in the family, the kindergarten or at school can affect a child¿s well-being, this book calls for the importance of shaping such atmospheres so to produce a positive influence on children living and learning together.

The complex relationship between life and the arts has always been a crucial topic in philosophical discourse. The essays in this book discuss fundamental issues of modern and contemporary aesthetics, drawing upon the work of the French philosopher Jean- Pierre Cometti, a key figure in the studies of aesthetics, pragmatism, and Austrian philosophy. The volume covers a wide-range of topics, from the examination of fundamental principles of art and literary criticism to a new understanding of the Modernist notion of art. It proposes an anthropological aesthetics using Musil¿s The Man Without Qualities or the analysis of literary characters such as Tolstoj¿s Hadji Murat and Cervantes¿ Don Quixote as a tool to cast light on themes in Wittgenstein¿s philosophy. Editors Carla Carmona and Jerrold Levinson have brought together renowned voices in the field of philosophy to offer a window onto Cometti¿s philosophical work, as well as an in-depth analysis of contemporary artistic and aesthetic practices, in an effort to overcome what can sometimes appear as a gulf between art and life.

The essays in this collection explore the construction and transformation of self image through the encounter between East and West from a variety of disciplinary approaches.

Philosophical News is the official publication of the European Society for Moral Philosophy. It is a semi-annual journal of philosophy born from the collaboration of a number of international scholars as well as an intense editorial effort. The aim of the journal is to promote research and reflection with special regard to the contemporary debate in all its different cultural manifestations.

How can we restore fundamental values on a political and cultural level? Taking this question as a starting point, the book identifies the notion of sociological imagination as a suitable method to address the widespread disorientation within the human and social sciences. In particular, the three essays included in this volume focus on the role of sociology as a tool to achieve a constructive representation of reality. Through a sharp analysis of the current, growing dismissal of cultural structures and the lack of an ethical view in the interpretation of social phenomena, the author offers new perspectives in order to recover authentic human commitments that are able to re-establish meaningful relationships between people.