The Routledge Companion to Aesthetics

The third edition of the acclaimed Routledge Companion to Aesthetics contains over sixty chapters written by leading international scholars covering all aspects of aesthetics.

This companion opens with an historical overview of aesthetics including entries on Plato, Aristotle, Kant, Nietzsche, Heidegger, Adorno, Benjamin, Foucault, Goodman, and Wollheim. The second part covers the central concepts and theories of aesthetics, including the definitions of art, taste, the value of art, beauty, imagination, fiction, narrative, metaphor and pictorial representation. Part three is devoted to issues and challenges in aesthetics, including art and ethics, art and religion, creativity, environmental aesthetics and feminist aesthetics. The final part addresses the individual arts, including music, photography, film, videogames, literature, theater, dance, architecture and design.

With ten new entries, and revisions and updated suggestions for further reading throughout, The Routledge Companion to Aesthetics is essential for anyone interested in aesthetics, art, literature, and visual studies.

Berys Gaut is Professor of Philosophy at the University of St Andrews, Scotland, and President of the British Society of Aesthetics. He is the author of Art, Emotion and Ethics and A Philosophy of Cinematic Art, and co-author, with Morag Gaut, of Philosophy for Young Children: A Practical Guide (Routledge, 2011).

Dominic McIver Lopes is Distinguished University Scholar and Professor of Philosophy at the University of British Columbia, Canada, and President of the American Society for Aesthetics. He is the author of Understanding Pictures, Sight and Sensibility: Evaluating Pictures, A Philosophy of Computer Art (Routledge, 2009) and Beyond Art.