Non serviam : philosophical essays on arts of living

This is a book on performing philosophy; a self-fashioning more part of a practical discipline than a theoretical one. Admittedly, academic philosophy is typically regarded as theoretical, providing universal and generic statements. But there is, and always has been, a strand of philosophy more focused on the self of the philosopher as an individual fashioning him- or herself. This is philosophy bordering on art and poetry, philosophy open for exchange. It s personal.

But I wouldn t be much of a philosopher if I accepted personal inclinations without reflecting on their presuppositions. My endeavor is to formulate conditions for ars vivendi, the art of living, and the trick is to formulate them in a non-dogmatic fashion. This is why I find the aestheticist form of philosophy appealing it is the least general version of ars vivendi, that ancient philosophical discipline attributed to Socrates.

Per Nilsson is a Philosopher and Senior Lecturer at the Academy of Fine Arts at Umeå University in Sweden. Apart from academic essay writing, he has a long experience of research cooperation with artists from different fields, from visual art and architecture to choreography and performance.

Gerd Aurell (illuminations) is a Visual Artist working mainly with drawing, performance and installation. She works as a Lecturer in Aesthetics at the Academy of Fine Arts at Umeå University in Sweden. She has exhibited widely in Sweden and around the world.