The Blackwell Guide to Aesthetics is one of the most authoritative surveys of the central issues in contemporary aesthetics available. The volume features eighteen newly-commissioned essays on the evaluation of art, the interpretation of art, and forms of art such as literature, movies, dance, and music.

Written in clear and accessible prose by an assembly of some of the most distinguished philosophers of art, these essays develop the themes, discuss the problems, and evaluate the arguments of the main topics in the field.

An excellent resource for students and scholars alike, this book provides a guide to the central, traditional questions as well as the cutting-edge issues in aesthetics today.

The contributors are Peter Kivy, George Dickie, Noël Carroll, Paul Guyer, Ted Cohen, Marcia Muelder Eaton, Joseph Margolis, Berys Gaut, Nicholas Wolterstorff, Susan Feagin, Peter Lamarque, Stein Haugom Olsen, Francis Sparshott, Alan Goldman, Jenefer Robinson, Mary Mothersill, Donald W. Crawford, Philip Alperson, Laurent Stern, and Amie L. Thomasson.

Peter Kivy is Board of Governors professor of philosophy at Rutgers University and a past president of the American Society for Aesthetics. His most recent books are The Possessor and the Possessed: Handel, Mozart, Beethoven, and the Idea of Musical Genius (2001), New Essays on Musical Understanding (2001), and Introduction to a Philosophy of Music (2002).