On Beauty and Being Just - Softcover

"'Thank you to Elaine Scarry for her wonderful essay On Beauty and Being Just, from which I borrowed a title, a chapter heading and a good deal of inspiration' Zadie Smith, On Beauty 'With exemplary clarity, Elaine Scarry argues that admiring the beautiful is nothing to be ashamed of; that on the contrary beauty fosters the spirit of justice. A brave and timely book' J. M. Coetzee"

Various political arguments have been put forward against beauty: that it distracts us from more important issues; that it is the handmaiden of privilege; that it masks political interests. In "On Beauty and Being Just" Elaine Scarry challenges such theories, offering not only a passionate defence of beauty from the political arguments against it, but also that beauty does indeed have a positive effect on life. Rather than serving the privileged it presses all of us towards a greater concern for justice.