"This is an inspired and inspiring book. Putting John Dewey's pragmatism in conversation with the Japanese philosophy of Motoori Norinaga, Johnathan Flowers creatively develops an affective eco-ontology of gender that is open and dynamic. I especially appreciate how the book's methodology complements its main claims concerning interbeing through connection and transaction, especially across different cultural traditions. With this book, Flowers breathes fresh life into contemporary understandings of gendered experience and being." --Shannon Sullivan, UNC Charlotte "Every scholar of pragmatism should familiarize themselves with this book. I've learned so much about how Japanese aesthetics interacts and corresponds with Dewey's metaphysics and aesthetics. But beyond being just a comparative work of cross-cultural philosophy, Flowers offers an incredible reading of gender at a time when bad actors and conceptual confusion abounds. This book is absolutely essential.

" --Robin Zebrowski, Beloit College "The nature of gender is passionately debated everywhere today, from family dinner tables to op-ed pages to academic journals. Johnathan Flowers' Mono no Aware and Gender as Affect in Japanese Aesthetics and American Pragmatism is an extremely timely and provocative intervention on this topic. In this breathtaking intellectual tour de force, Flowers brings the insights of the Japanese philosopher Motoori Norinaga into dialogue with the existentialism of Simone de Beauvoir and the pragmatism of John Dewey to offer a new approach to the issue of gender. This is a book that will captivate adventurous minds" --Bryan W. Van Norden, author of Taking Back Philosophy: A Multicultural Manifesto.