Table of Contents

1. The Smooth
2. The Smooth Body
3. The Aesthetics of the Smooth
4. Digital Beauty
5. The Aesthetics of Veiling
6. The Aesthetics of Injury
7. The Aesthetics of Disaster
8. The Ideal of Beauty
9. Beauty as Truth
10. The Politics of Beauty
11. Pornographic Theatre
12. Lingering on Beauty
13. Beauty as Reminiscence
14. Giving Birth in Beauty
Notes

About the Author

Byung-Chul Han is a Korean-born Professor of Philosophy and Cultural Studies who teaches at the University of the Arts (UdK) in Berlin. He is the author of more than 20 books including The Scent of Time, The Transparency Society and The Burnout Society.

Reviews

"In this provocative analysis Han agitates against contemporary notions of smooth air-brushed beauty. Instead he pleads for an aesthetic based on a generative, creative, commitment to truth that can encompass negativity injury and disaster. Ranging from pornography to classical literature this tour de force of thinking about our understanding of beauty reminds us that philosophy can have teeth. Han writes with a compelling urgency about how we live in the here and now, but also how we could live better. Saving Beauty is an aesthetic call to arms; an example of how philosophy can militate for a better world and make us see anew." 
Karen Leeder, Oxford University

“Thrilling… a passionate and engaging read on a notion of beauty that has lost its standing in a digitized world.”
Philosophy Today