This Beauty: A Philosophy of Being Alive

“Why should I care about or value... this life that was simply given to me?” asks Riggle (On Being Awesome), a University of San Diego philosopher and former professional skater, in this subtle meditation. Drawing on an eclectic variety of sources that include Plato, Leonard Cohen, and Ocean Vuong, the author contends that “attending to and replicating” beauty can give meaning to life. He lays out a nuanced definition of beauty as a force that prompts engagement and self-expression through imitation and sharing. Such actions create what Riggle calls “aesthetic community,” in which one enters into an artistic conversation by generating art that can then be imitated and shared again: “When you share, express, and imitate, you engage in special forms of community and love.” For an academic philosopher, Riggle’s writing can be gorgeously concrete (“The glowing ocotillo that foregrounds a peach tree in full bloom, heavy with light pink petals, carmine buds, and, if I squint, yellow-tipped pistils”), but the ideas are heady and readers may be disappointed that they aren’t as accessible as the Drake references would suggest. The result is a dense but rewarding take on beauty’s central role in life. (Dec.)