The Routledge Companion to Aesthetics contains 54 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 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, ethics, environmental aesthetics and feminist aesthetics. The final part addresses the individual arts of music, photography, film, literature, theatre, dance, architecture and sculpture.

The second edition includes eight new entries: Creativity; Schopenhauer, Schiller and Schelling; Nelson Goodman; Style; Feminism; Ontology; Heidegger; Sartre and Merleau-Ponty. Many other entries have been revised and further reading brought up to date.

The Routledge Companion to Aesthetics is essential reading for anyone interested in aesthetics, art, literature, and visual studies.