The Routledge Companion to Aesthetics

The Routledge Companion to Aesthetics contains forty-six chapters written by leading international scholars covering all aspects of aesthetics. The volume is structured in four parts: History, Aesthetic Theory, Issues and Challenges, and Individual Arts. It opens with an historical overview of aesthetics including entries on Plato, Aristotle, Kant, Nietzsche, Heidegger, Sibley and Derrida. The second part covers the central concepts and theories needed for a comprehensive understanding of contemporary developments in aesthetics including the definitions of art, taste, value of art, beauty, imagination, fiction, narrative, metaphor and pictorial representation. Part three is devoted to the topics that have attracted much contemporary interest in aesthetics including art and ethics, environmental aesthetics and feminist aesthetics. The final part addresses the individual arts of music, photography, film, literature, theatre, dance, architecture and sculpture. Aesthetics is a vibrant growing field within philosophy. It addresses fundamental questions about the nature and value of art that cannot easily be answered by a study of the histories of the arts. This volume should prove invaluable both to curious newcomers, who want to learn more about aesthetics, and to professionals, who desire a ready reference work.