OANA ȘERBAN, ONE OF DE GRUYTER’S AUTHORS. HER NEW PHILOSOPHY BOOK, AFTER THOMAS KUHN. THE STRUCTURE OF AESTHETIC REVOLUTIONS, HAS JUST BEEN PUBLISHED

The Research Center for the History and Circulation of Philosophical Ideas is pleased to announce the publication of an expected philosophical book on Thomas Kuhn’s legacy and the possibility to understand the structure of aesthetic revolutions by engaging Kuhn’s arguments inspired by Structure of Scientific Revolutions. De Gruyter has just released Oana Șerban’s volume, After Thomas Kuhn, The Structure of Aesthetic Revolutions.

De Gruyter has been a publisher of excellent scholarship since 1749 and it has been, ever since, a trendsetter in the field of philosophy.

BOOK PRESENTATION

The book is announced by De Gruyter as “the most recent research devoted to a systematized perspective and a critical (re)construction of previous theoretical attempts of explaining, justifying and continuing Kuhn’s ingenious hypothesis in arts. Hofstadter, Clignet and Habermas revealed to be the most engaged scholars in solving this aesthetic “puzzled-problem”. In this context, the structural similarities between science and arts are attentively evaluated, thus satisfying an older concern attributed to the historical Kuhn-Kubler dispute, extensively commented along the pages of this book.”

Some key questions open Oana Șerban’s book: “How can we track the matter of rationality and truth in art and aesthetics, inspired by scientific perspectives? Are artistic styles similar to scientific paradigms? Are we entitled to persuade paradigms and masterpieces as rational models in science, respectively in arts? On what possible grounds can we borrow from science notions such as progress and predictability, in the study of the evolution of art and its aesthetic backgrounds? Are the historical dynamics of science and art affected by political factors in the same manner?”

De Gruyter presents this book being of interest to philosophers, but also to historians of science and historians of art alike in the reassessment it provides of recent debates on reshaping the art world using Kuhn’s “paradigm shift”.

WHO IS OANA ȘERBAN?

PhD Lecturer Oana Șerban teaches philosophy at the University of Bucharest. Her key-domains are: Modern Philosophy, Aesthetics, Biopolitics and Philosophy of Culture. Oana Șerban is Executive Director of CCIIF – The Research Center for the History and Circulation of Philosophical Ideas (University of Bucharest) and is a member of ISCH – International Society of Cultural History. She is a book author and has published and co-edited different volumes of philosophy, culture and aesthetics, mainly devoted to artistic capitalism, cultural capital and creative communication and critical theory. Recent interests engaged her in research projects devoted to the history of antihumanism and the biopolitical potential of art.

A PHILOSOPHICAL CELEBRATION: THIS BOOK APPEARS AT THE 100^TH ANNIVERSARY OF KUHN’S BIRTH AND THE 60^TH ANNIVERSARY OF THE PUBLICATION OF THE STRUCTURE OF SCIENTIFIC REVOLUTIONS

Oana Șerban shared some insights of what means being a De Gruyter author:

“The cooperation with De Gruyter is one of the greatest honors that I had in my career. As a book author, you invest much time and dedication to your research: years of reading, study, revaluations, advocating different perspectives and disseminating them at conferences, and engaging feedback in conceiving new arguments, more reliable, more critical, hopefully indestructible. De Gruyter took care of my book by all means: I had the joy to work with a professional editorial team: they created not only a competitive editorial product on this occasion, but also a long-lasting project that I am proud to see embraced by such publishing press. My joy is that they found a place for this book in their powerful philosophical tradition. The greatest news is that this book appears at the 100^th anniversary of Kuhn’s birth and the 60^th anniversary of the publication of The Structure of Scientific Revolutions! It is the perfect occasion to track down the hypotheses that convinced the American philosopher that paradigm shifts in the arts are worthy of more systematic consideration.”

The book is available for purchase directly from De Gruyter (https://www.degruyter.com/document/doi/10.1515/9783110774696/html) and can be ordered both as a hardcopy or as an eBook.